Yesterday, Special Counsel Robert Hur, appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland in January 2023 to investigate President Joe Biden’s handling of classified documents before he was president, released his report. It begins: “We conclude that no criminal charges are warranted in this matter. We would reach the same conclusion even if Department of Justice policy did not foreclose criminal charges against a sitting president.” The Department of Justice closed a similar case against former Vice President Mike Pence on June 1, 2023, days before Pence announced his presidential bid, with a brief, one-page letter.
Unpacking the special prosecutor's report: "I have absolutely nothing. But that won't stop me from taking a thoroughly partisan and inappropriate swipe at the president".
My Mom is batting a .248 on getting the right name of the celebrity actor that was in that movie from however many years ago. She has never referred to my doctor by the right name, and today called Chapstick a utensil. (We were having Chinese food). On the other hand, she spent the week filing all the paperwork to apply for Medicare, helping her sister with my Grandma's estate, and helping my brother switch *his* healthcare, with nary an error made. Everyone trusts her to do this more than anyone, which is strange because I guess she's clearly senile.
My Dad had a long conversation with me tonight about the various federal court immunity cases. He mixed up the states involved and couldn't remember the names of 1 or 2 of the Justices, but had a full grasp of all the concepts and reminded me of a few theories I was unaware of. Go figure. He had the day off from his foreign trade paralegal job, which requires he communicate with multiple countries on all continents over sensitive matters, where any mistake he makes could cost someone a million dollars despite the fact that the original documents are in languages he does not speak and everyone is on a different timezone and working under differing sets of law. The other day he said El Salvador when he meant Ecuador, so I don't know why they still trust him to do that job, because I guess he's clearly senile.
Come to think of it, I probably can't judge this. Not because I don't have a medical degree, but because *I* am clearly senile too. I can't remember what I had for lunch yesterday (eggs? fish?... carrots??). I don't know what date my dentist appointment is off the top of my head, how many weeks it has been since the last one, what the name of the street the office's address is, what MY address was in college, 98% of what I learned in college, or what year I started taking classes again. It's only going to get worse. I should see if I can get on disability before I hurt someone!
For lord's sake, the President is an old man. He makes embarrassing verbal slips, including some doozies this week. I know most of us here are fans, but let us not sugar coat this. He's *always* been a gaffe machine, and there is no way it was going to get better with age. However, that is COMPLETELY IRRELEVANT to his experience, knowledge, temperament, and abilities to make tough decisions and carry out his duties. As a citizen, I am satisfied with his accomplishments and feel he shares my values, which is why I will be supporting him again. His opponent also is an old man who makes embarrassing verbal slips. My opposition to him is not because of these whoopsies, but because everything he says and does on purpose is absolutely damnable and psychotic.
I am so deeply tired of this shallow bullsh!t, I cannot tell you guys.
What an astutely, perceptive commentary of real life! The older we all get, the more real knowledge we carry with us. Some of it gets garbled in the verbal retelling. But what never changes is a person’s character. I think we have plenty of evidence that speaks clearly to the character of President Biden and the lack there of in former President Trump. Whether or not you even agree with his politics, there is not one ounce of evidence that President Biden will ever, under any circumstances, stray from his oath to the US Constitution. Conversely, we all know, beyond a shadow of doubt, that Trump has no integrity, whatsoever, and will burn the Constitution as soon as he is given the chance. He tried to do it before and he and his cohorts are hell bent on usurping our constitutional republic once and for all in this next election. Integrity be damned!
I pray that Liz Cheney is not the only Republican with a spine who is willing to support the Constitution despite party politics, knowing this election will be the deciding factor between democracy or fascism. We cannot allow Trump anywhere near the oval office ever again!
I somewhat agree with you, MayPat. However, IMO there is a difference. Ms. Cheney is in front of the TV cameras speaking loudly and frequently to the nation about the dangers of allowing Trump and Co. back in the White House.
I’ve been reading Adam Kinsinger’s Substack messages for a couple months now and I would describe his message delivery as more like speaking quietly behind his hand so only the persons on either side of him actually hear what he’s saying. His messages clearly say (complain?) that R’s are not standing up to Trump, R’s are no longer attempting to govern in a moderate, center-right manner, R’s are embarrassing themselves. R’s are sadly succumbing to the fear of MAGA retaliation and threats by either going along with the “freedom caucus” or “retiring” from political office. (Adam went so far as too physically relocate his family to Texas because of harassment in his home State of Illinois). I haven’t seen any statements crediting the current administration for its great work and accomplishments. Just criticism of what R’s are doing or not doing.
Interestingly, just a few days ago he actually ran his own survey to gauge who was reading his Substack - the responders were overwhelmingly Democrats. Very few identified as R’s or former R’s or even Independents. His own survey proved that his message is not reaching the audience who needs to hear what he is trying to say. His commentary strikes me as a sad lament of what other R’s could or should do to stop Trump from regaining office.
Yes, you make excellent and important points. Just sounds like he found a new choir, us Dems. But when I watched his podcast with Mary Trump and Katie Couric (yes Dems) I felt some hope
Maybe out of the steam here but as someone said: "a vote is a chess move , not a valentine " Good to remember for R that hold their nose & vote for a D.
MaryPat, thank you SO much for linking this YouTube video!! What an impressive, informational conversation. It helped me realize Adam IS doing more, and perhaps being a louder voice, than I thought just from following his SubStack. I so appreciate your sharing this interview.
Question: have you read his book? Do you recommend?
Well, it was the R's who tanked the immigration bill because dumb Donald wants to run on immigration as an issue. I cannot for the life of me, figure out how he thinks he has a winning hand on immigration since he tanked the possibility of passing some sort of immigration reform. Donald tRump is a dunce and a bully; he proves it every time he opens his mouth. The R's lack the nerve to take down tRump.
If trump was so good, why didn't he solve the problem when he was president? He did have some good ideas for the wall. Put solar panels on it. Make it transparent so drug smugglers could be caught throwing bags of drugs over the wall. He failed last time, hat makes everyone think he will succeed now. If he does, it will come at a terrible price.
Romney hired private security people. With that, Jan 6th, and the threats to the juries and judges, one would surmise that trumpers are violent. Not all but it only takes one bullet to kill someone.
Let me intercede here... Donny J. frump is the Repub's chosen poster boy, even with all his baggage, leaving the once proud GOP rudderless. Of course the Repub Party is in a world of hurt too. But there is hope for the politcians of that bent; Liz Cheney. As a lifelong member of the Democrat Party I have to continue to wonder when the fools will wake up. Likely not even after the end of 2024. Sad.
And @Will, from Cal, don’t forget about his team. I trust the people BIden has around him. I trust that they are driven by policy, not power. (Often to our short-term detriment.) I trust that the Continuity of Government will steady the ship should Biden, in his second term, have a “Mitch McConnell moment.”
Behind the scenes, Harris stands where I stand on Dobbs and Jobs and THAT’s what matters.
Will, excellent post!! "Shallow" is the best word to describe the Republicans who have no depth of character or integrity. Your comments are so applicable to many people I know, including me. :) When I was teaching, I'd often get so stressed by everything that was expected of me, that I couldn't remember students' names, or what committee meeting I should be attending, or my mind would wander to more peaceful times. I found myself staring out the window more than the children. I was told that I was a very good teacher, and I see former students who thank me for motivating them. ( I knew when it was time to stop teaching, and I'm sure that President Biden will know when it is time to stop being president.) Which is to say, as you said, that people can be very competent and accomplish wonderful things and still get confused. ("Why did I come into this room?") I read somewhere that stress is a great contributor to forgetfulness. If anyone has a right to be stressed it's President Biden.
People who criticize him and overlook Trump's idiiotic blunders are "pancake people"--a lot of surface area but not much depth.- shallow.
I would say "evil" is the best word to describe today's R along with "soulless". They are clearly the party of death, guided only by lust for power, greed, and political theater. They know they have nothing for ordinary people in this country.
Pam, I recall from a long ago SNL segment called “sniglets” the cobble-created word for wondering why you walked into a room….they named it “destinasia”. I have been using it ever since because it is SO apt!
It is infuriating that the MSM will spend hours or column inches carping on President Biden's gaffes (which are nothing new) and gaps, yet say nothing about the truly insane thing Trump says on a daily basis. Yesterday he again told his most egregious lie: that he went to World Trade Center on the day. He added a new twist, that it was 7/11 (seven eleven), not 9/11. I might be biased but I do think that getting the date of the most memorable attack on US soil wrong is more concerning than confusing Mexico and Egypt.
I agree!! I can't stand to even see Trump's face, much less hear his whiny voice. He is truly sickening to me, but apparently some people would rather see and hear a lunatic, then see and hear a man with integrity and compassion.
I just read the subtitles and quotes in articles. I can stand listening to him' I will say that he does not have a monotonous voice and expressive facial features. His eyes look so porcine to me. Ironically pigs will eat humans if given them chopped up.
Will, yesterday I had a productive discussion with an in-law who “can’t vote for Trump but is very concerned about Biden because he’s too old”. 15 minutes later she was much much less concerned. One vote at a time, lets win this one vote at a time
We are all tired, but your contributions to the narrative are stellar. Be tired, keep at it. Blessings
I am SO with you, Will…I, too, get a touch of aphasia ( especially when stressed over the many difficult events of life that don’t come anywhere near the stress of events Biden must shepherd the country through), but that has been going on since I was thirty years old, and it has nothing to do with competency (I have been a newspaper editor, EMT, and written nine non- fiction books and more articles than I can shake a stick at over that time .. and I am not even special, just living a life with an occasional touch of tip-of-the-tongue issues all of us get). I wish people understood how normal Biden’s memory actually is, and how sick and twisted Donnie actually is.
I am just about Biden's age as is my husband. Sometimes neither one of us can remember a name or something else and then it comes to us when we aren't trying to remember. And I often have to concentrate on what I am doing a little more and yes, I have why am I in this room moments. Then I remember.
To me, the older you get, the more files you have. Files of information, facts, data, pictures, etc., along with so many memories. For many of us, including Joe Biden, it's just a matter of figuring out where you filed the piece of information you're looking for. It pops up, sometimes at 3am, but it's there, all stored. Additionally, you can refresh your memory with Google. And memory issues, to me, are not nearly as important as being vulnerable, laughing at yourself sometimes, being willing to learn new things, telling the truth and having integrity, and practicing kindness and compassion. And Joe Biden embodies those qualities.
Mona, exactly! This is how I’ve long described it to folks….so much “stuff” in my brain—like an overstuffed file cabinet—to sift through to find the data I’m after!!!!
I like Kamala a lot. I was very confused as to why, at the beginning of the Biden/Harris administration, the Democrats were attacking her. I did find a reference to NYT Op Ed that said she wasn't a progressive prosecutor. I think these folks don't get how she sees her role in reforming criminal justice. In her book "The Truths We Hold," she states there is a common issue with false equivalency: you could either be tough on crime or soft on crime. She lists three examples, but I'll just give one. She said you can want the police to stop crime in your neighborhood and still be against them using excessive force.
Op Ed By Lara Bazelon saying not Progressive (BTW - Lara has changed her mind about Kamala Harris based on post-California activities
Some complain about Kamala because she hasn't been more front and center in domestic politics, and Biden has not used her as a true partner. I beg to differ. He has given her intensive training in what one needs to know to be president. He gave her a foreign policy portfolio on immigration. He has given her opportunities to travel the world and meet world leaders and I imagine they have had subsequent conversations about what she learned. She went to the Climate Change conference this year and was in conversation with Arab leaders concerning the current crisis. She has been involved with Ukraine. She is being mentored by a very capable president to take his place. The current state of the world is such that I don't think he feels it is time to step back. I believe, he feels they'll navigate this better together, especially since some political operatives have done everything possible to discredit her in the public eye. Quite frankly, there are still too many Americans unwilling to accept a woman as president.
Will, as always, you hit the nail on the head. I want to add - as I have before - let’s not just compare these two men running for president; let’s compare the cabinets, attorneys and advisors with which they have surrounded themselves. Do we really want Stephen Miller, Jared Kushner, Alina Habba or Mike Flynn anywhere near the seat of power? Making domestic or diplomatic decisions that impact our lives? I think not. Judge a man by his associates, not his age.
Will from Cal.....THANK YOU for saying so perfectly what I believe and have always thought about Biden. I believe he will go down in history as one of the best people's presidents since FDR.
He has my vote. He will always have my vote. Hur and the media be damned in their partisan shenanigans.
Thank you Will & Lin. Per David Hurtz' 2/8 'Talking Points Memo' (TPM) & despite being "optimistic & vigilant" David posted, "If fascism is a disease then the United States is vulnerable"
Good to know this LFAA Community is an able Trauma Center. Carry on all.
Some recall that I came to LFAA as a Life Skill remedy from 9 days of unconsciousness. When you think about ( & my docs did) HCR is much like a Trial Attorney -- scrupulous situational & historical context with citations posted on real-time history all under my neurologist's Motto:
"The neurons that fire together rewire together". : )
Sure, Biden has made verbal mistakes. But he never misidentified in a photo the woman he raped by saying she was his second wife, during a deposition. Or now owes said woman (E. Jean Carroll) $88.3 MILLION and amounting, with interest.
(That should be front and center of every response by allies of Joe Biden.)
There's memory foibles and then there are deteriorating mental abilities. I, too, suffer from the former (when will I ever remember to get the flashing to put on the side of my outdoor stairs to keep the stupid particle board from disintegrating) and have witnessed the latter in people who are in the throes of dementia or Alzheimer's. There are differences, people.
My lord, YES! People refuse to stop conflating these things. They have the discernment of a grade school bully's sidekick, looking for any flaw just so they can yell "Haha, you're rEtArDeD!!!" from across the lunchroom. Elderly-man-who-said-a-word-wrong does not equal dementia sufferer. It is so insulting to anyone who has suffered. A person with actual dementia could not make it through a speech even with a teleprompter, much less negotiate with foreign leaders. If the President was senile, it would be *literally impossible* to cover it up.
Can't wait until we actually get our first female President and polls start asking whether the public is concerned with her fitness because some people think she's a bit shrill on certain days. Don't want her to PMS when she's talking to someone important!
I have just written to the Justice Department saying that Hur should resign since his obvious ageism is a bias that is not fitting in a department that exists to enforce that we are just.
It's too late to dump Hur. My question is: Did AG Garland read that document before it was released? Did he approve that mess? Why didn't he demand that the statement stick to the facts and the decision? It's to be a legal explanation, not an editorial on ageism. Good grief. I try to be charitable to Garland. But I think he blew it again.
Exactly what I was wondering--Including personal comments in such a report is SUPPOSED to be strictly prohibited. Garland should have read it and edited those bits out.
I'm getting rather fed up with Garland's miss-steps. I was willing to give him a lot of room for the investigation, because it's no easy thing to prosecute a former President (it's "un-presidented!) and he had to strike the proper note in so doing...but releasing this partisan hack job of 300+ pages, when Pence was cleared with a brief one page report (that wasn't released, I note).
What a crappy way to thank the guy who gave Garland a job after McConnell ghosted him for the SCOTUS position.
I think it is his scrupulousness and his general bienveillance (it’s one of the descriptions of Biden and I only can think of the French) that got him the job. He has tried to be totally apolitical after Trump’s totally political AG (remember the Muller report?) and it causes all of us to quake, but on the whole, no body’s perfect and he has used his best judgment which I’m betting will turn out ok in the end.
I admit, if Garland had edited that report, the fact that the report had been redacted even to a minor degree would been sure to leak, and it would have been even worse if it had hit the news cycle in that fashion...so yeah.
Garland certainly has a scrupulous, cautious temperament--and truly, he would have been ideally suited to a judicial position. Garland should have been Associate Justice Garland and we would all have better off. I have no doubt that Garland tries to be apolitical but on the other hand, if that is so, why then did he give that special counsel job to someone who had worked in the Trump administration not once, but twice? I'm still on the fence about Garland's reasoning, to be honest.
Bill, I wrote to Garland because I want him to hear how displeased people in the public are about Hur! He should get the info. and get that the optics are exactly what they are. If enough people call for Hur's removal it will put pressure on them to remove him. I can only speak for myself.
Hur is a Trump appointee. He was kept on because Justice is supposed to be apolitical. Remember all those guys who threatened to quit Justice after Trump wanted to make the environmental lawyer AG? Hur is behaving like a mole in a spy novel!
Neal Katyal, a former acting solicitor general under President Barack Obama, helped craft the special counsel regulations in the 1990s, as a young Justice Department lawyer. Katyal said officials at the time expected that most special counsel reports would not be made public, given long-standing Justice Department guidelines to not comment when prosecutors decline to indict someone.
But that’s changed in recent years. In 2019, special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s investigation into possible Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election helped establish a new norm: Reports would be made public, in an effort to demonstrate transparency and that an investigation was thorough and fair.
Katyal, citing his own role in creating the special counsel rules, wrote an op-ed in The Washington Post that year saying Mueller’s report should be released so that the public would “have confidence that justice was done.”
On Friday, Katyal questioned Hur’s decision to include Biden’s alleged mental lapses during hours of interviews, including that he could not remember the year his son Beau died of cancer and struggled to recall the years of his vice presidency (Biden angrily denied those characterizations after the report was released).
“Perhaps there was some justification for special counsel Hur to comment on the president’s age and mental fitness, but I severely doubt it, and the report is not reassuring in this regard,” Katyal said in an email. “It seems gratuitous and wrong.”
Does that mean that Garland cannot come out and publicly say, our department does not approve of the unsolicited remarks about Biden's mental fitness? There was no official memory assessment, and in school psychology one would never make a diagnosis without an assessment. An all day interrogation while someone is handling a crisis is not legitimate memory assessment. https://www.who.int/news/item/29-09-2016-discrimination-and-negative-attitudes-about-ageing-are-bad-for-your-health
His ageism should be commented on and called out by Garland and we the public should be assured that this is not the standard that the Department of Justice upholds.
My question too. And now that Hur has proven he’s a political hack, can Garland not assign him any work and essentially set him out to pasture until he can release him after the election? Garland has been a huge disappointment- taking so long to move against Trump and the insurrection.
This article helped somewhat to understand the circumstances and rationale for publishing the report as written. My favorite comment so far about this was “He couldn’t indict him legally so he indicted him politically”
No. Justice is not supposed to be political as Trump made it. As a former judge, Garland may have been over cautious, but once the January 6th committee got Justice on the ball, it’s been ok. It’s we Americans who are IMPATIENT. And we have courts that are doing their best to remain evenhanded even in the face of putinists. Not easy. It’s the people who MUST NOT VOTE FOR TRUMP or any congress person who voted not to accept the election (3:00 am January 7th). It’s up to us if the courts haven’t nabbed him before November!!!
Bill, initially I thought the same. But then I thought back to Barr and his redacting/mischaracterizing the Mueller report. Perhaps Garland thought to let the public see just what a hatchet job it is (because you KNOW that the right would have found out that Garland edited the report)
Good point, Barbara, tho would Hur be allowed (thinking institutional rules/regs) to release, share or talk (leak?) about to anyone outside the DOJ what was taken out of the report because it was deemed immaterial and prejudicial? Thinking that Garland himself not redacting info, but requiring his employee to re-write a flawed report as any leader/director/teacher/editor would do before “publishing” a work. Would be curious to know Garland’s actions on this front.
Thanks for the link. It does address some of our concerns and questions. Damned if you do, damned if you don't. I think the Rs will go all hair on fire, and it will turn into another big nothingburger. Cheeto's inability to STFU has already bumped it from the top spot.
Relax Bill, the only people who are going to read that 'document' are folks like us who recognize the familiar smell. The maggats mind(?) is made up. It's better that those words were not suppressed, lest such be construed by the (R) as (D's) hiding stuff.Most maggats (R) can't read anyway.
I read a discussion in which it was said it was an internal memo and that Garland released the report to avoid his moles inside the department from lying about it.
Regarding the question of whether Biden's brain is turning into mashed potatoes, HCR retails the following talking point:
"If Biden was regularly misremembering obvious pieces of information or making other mistakes that suggested he was not up to the job, it would be in the press."
Ah yes, the press. In the words of former New York Times editor John Swinton:
""There is no such thing, at this date of the world's history, in America, as independent press. You know it and I know it. ... The business of the journalists is to destroy the truth; to lie outright; to pervert; to vilify; to fawn at the feet of mammon, and to sell his country and his race for his daily bread. ... Our talents, our possibilities and our lives are all the property of other men. We are intellectual prostitutes."
You don’t realize she meant exactly that, John? That the press would jump on and ride that horse for clicks and jollies? If more incidents of even non-toxic memory glitches - never mind serious ones- were occurring, we would be hearing about them all the time. You jus twist the commentary to fit your narrative, John, and you miss the actual point.
Well, if THAT was your point, it’s even dopier. You must think the “press” is monolithic on the side of liberals [ye, gads! THAT is a whopper!], because the actual point — that if they had the raw material to roast Joe, they’d DO IT — is in evidence every minute of every day in the anti-liberal halls of some of the press.
{Yeah, I think there are liberal biases AND conservative biases out there in media land … thing is, >I< have evidence that both exist. Your point, John, would only hold water if there were no conservative-bias press outlets. Ho, hahaha ha! That’s a laugh.}
Perhaps intellectually dihonest to not draw out this debunking story from the same article you quoted? We all now know exactly how honest you are:
“I got email from Jay Salter, one of my readers, who had come across the John Swinton vignette in my "Other Voices" section. He forwarded it to a journalist's discussion area, asking for feedback.
“One journalist there, Jeff McMahon, made this response to Jay:
“‘Yeah, I'll take that bait.
"’The last time I saw that phony quote Swinton was identified as the "chief of staff" of the New York SUN, the date was 1853, and where it now says "I am paid weekly," it then said "I am paid $150 a week." Which is, actually, about how much I made in journalism.
“‘Then some liar realized that newspapers don't have chiefs of staff, at least the editorial departments don't, and if you're going to lie you might as well do it big, so they made him the EDITOR IN CHIEF of the New York TIMES in NINETEEN 53. Unfortunately, the editor of the New York Times in 1953 was Turner Catledge.
"’So, the quote itself betrays a need for journalists because otherwise people who spread such propaganda might go unchecked.”
Is there a Google Add-On that allows you to search for scribblings from clearly unbalanced or unhinged opinion writers? You seem to find them so easily as support for your own preposterous opinions.
Substack Inc's California contract violation reported and exhibit made for their counsel. All California contracts have a duty of good faith & fair dealing which includes anything that to destroys the Readers' subscriptions, their contracts with Substack Inc. Reported.
Since he was appointed to handle the particular issue of document handling by Pence and the President, with that now concluded, is he still even an employee of the DOJ?
No Mike Mr. HUR is not a DOJ employee but, HUR does report to Merrick Garland & is the DOJ AG that many have noted including me is ultimately responsible legally for reviewing & the scope of publication under DOJ regulations & the Special Counsel law. Many have observed we have a
'Comey 2".
Meanwhile it is Saturday in Southeast Tennessee so the Troll is up at the 36 minute mark.Generally, I have 'reported' trolling under the express written terms of Substack's 2023 Terms of Use (TOU) & Substack Inc's new "Guidelines" which are express written representations to "Readers' & 'Authors" which can be mediated at JAMS SF in California unless Substack's counsel can figure out an escape path from their chosen Mediation forum & their own choice of California law.
I suspect that the WH concluded that it would be better to have the unredacted report come out now, rather than leaking piecemeal closer to the election. Garland’s mistake was appointing Hur in the first place. Why are the special counsels always republicans?
That's the new rule: Democrats get investigated by Republicans, and Republicans get investigated by........other Republicans. Gee, sounds fair to me /s.
I agree, KR. I thought at the time it was a mistake to appoint Hur as special counsel. Is it that Dems bend over backwards to appear to be playing fair? Or perhaps Garland was thinking Republicans would not accept the special counsel's report if it had been done by a Democrat? I don't know, but it was a bad decision for whatever reason.
Maybe when there is an important matter of potentially partisan or political nature in future it should be investigated by three Special Counsels or Prosecutors, one from each party and one avowed independent, and the report signed off by all or, as with other legal cases in which there is disagreement among the judges, have an opinion (can hardly call this piece of dreck a "report", due to obvious bias) written by each, laying out facts and conclusions.
You've got that right. I hope the first thing Biden does when he starts his second term is to fire Casper Milquetoast. He has been a disaster as AG. While Jack Smith has been a brilliant choice, it should’ve been made much earlier but dithering Milquetoast was too busy avoiding the awful truth of Trump‘s traitorous actions.
Well KR, certainly on the surface, to avoid the appearance of being biased. Let's also face the unfulfilling fact that many of those (R)'s we term "maga-t's" are sincere in their beliefs (regarding #45, etc). And, to accuse them of being unpatriotic is not a nice thing to do..., like who are we? So, "appearance" counts, bigly.
Hi, Bryan - where do I find the TOU and "Guidelines" so that I can join in the condemnation of the way that particular troll expresses himself/itself (still not convinced it's a person rather than a bot)? I genuinely have no problem with alternative points of view, but I find it offensive that this troll cuts and pastes his/its comments several times in whatever thread he/it is responding to, and the ad hominem attacks against the opinions expressed in the Letters and the Comments deeply offensive. It wastes time and bandwidth, and frequently derails the discussion into trivial irrelevancies.
Thanks for posting this Christy. It answered some of my head-scratching confusion & questions about how this report could be released w/ apparently immaterial comments/opinions.
Maybe less head scratching but, at least for me, no less frustration. The entire DOJ needs a lesson from Ruth Ben-Ghiat, Timothy Snyder (and maybe throw in a few historical psychiatrists like RJ Lifton or Bandy Lee) on how to prevent an autocratic takeover from within. Seems like holding firm to institutional policies in times of chaos should be basic.
Someone on MSNBC suggested that knowing he has moles in Justice, AG Garland May have preferred the whole report to the leaking of what’s driving everyone mad.
Biden is old and it is an issue in this election. That's a fact. Will I vote for him? You betcha. Would I favor Gavin Newsom or Gretchen Whitmer to be our candidate? Absolutely. [I'll be 84 on 1-20-2025] "Old Joe" has done one helluva job.
Absolutely. And if he has to step down, I am 100% comfortable with Kamala Harris. I almost laughed when Nikki Haley said that voting for Biden is voting for President Kamala Harris. That is the job of the Vice President, to be ready to step up. You have to be comfortable with both of them, and ready for both of them.
And imagine if Biden’s last action as President, as a human… was elevating a Black woman to the presidency. 74,000,000 MAGA heads would explode at once. ✋🏽👩🏽💼🤯… and more importantly, make that feel entirely normal.
Harris can carry the freight from an intelligence and appearance standpoint. Not so Haley, Warren, Hillary, Lisa M, Bobear, or mtg. A person I've noticed is Jasmine Crocket (TX)..., intelligent, informed, well-spoken (meaning she speaks good English) with a Southern twang. Only thing lacking is time at temperature. Watch her.
I think that I can safely guarantee you and predict that Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett from my home state of Texas is a rising star in the Democratic Party and will be a force with which to be reckoned. The swift-boating of Hillary Clinton, the most qualified person to ever run for the presidency, is an effective tool that the Republicans know how to use. Democrats need to seize upon the process and forget this bunk about "going high when they go low." Sorry, Michelle.
Hur's brazen dirty political attack on Biden is deplorable--whatever happened to the notion of the esteemed elder sage? Lay off the ageism thing and stirring the pot, Hur! We're all taking this personally--I'm 72 and starting a new job next week....
I have my eye on Dan Goldman, D-Rep. NY, for 2028.
I agree with Richard. And I will support Joe Biden, but I do think that the Democratic Party and Joe Biden need a plan B. I am 78, and I know that things can change in a heartbeat. This election and its violent aftermath is going to require focus on the issues and democracy.
And Dems drag their feet when it comes to pushing forward promising candidates for high office while the party occupies the Oval Office. We “elect and forget” when we win the presidency.
Well said Richard. I am close to Trumps age. And as my Dad said just before he died: "Your body might hurt, but you never feel 'old' in your head". And that is at the core of our problem.
Newsom and Whitmer's generation should be driving the car. We are pulling a "Victoria" or "Queen Elizabeth". Our generation has been too long in the saddle.
But I am still "Ridin' with Biden" unless he does the LBJ. It is still early. On March 31, 1968 Johnson announced he wouldn't be running for re-election. If Joe read the tea leaves, he would do the same.
And within minutes, a dozen or more highly qualified Democratic candidates for president would emerge and election democracy would move rapidly to establish a new contender.
But Vote Blue no Matter Who - or democracy dies an awful death.
A couple things could happen, Bill, for Biden to retire.
First, least likely (due to time) -- criminal conviction of the fat, orange-make-up caked, diapered insurrectionist-in-chief. But conviction could come before Republican convention, and could force delegates to the shock of seeing that conviction combined with sudden awareness of their incredibly bad record on getting anything done for the public. Disaster looming for all in November.
Second, the nine justices of the Supreme Court could realize they'd all taken oath to defend the Constitution, and that its article 14, section three obliges them unanimously to order insurrectionist-in-chief immediately and permanently off the ballot in all 50 states.
Well Kamala Harris has been an apprentice to one of the best Presidents we’ve been fortunate enough to have these last 4 years, so I am thrilled to stick with Joe and the administration he has built.
I for one am SHOCKED that the R's have yet to say the quiet part about this out loud on this one yet. Not only a woman, but a black woman as president? The wailing, the rending of cloth, the dispairing that will ensue! They will set their own money on fire to prove she's unfit.
What I find thrilling and ironic is that the last group to get the right to vote (Black females) are the ones leading the charge to save our democracy. Judge Chutkan, AG Leticia James, DA Fani Willis, Congresswomen Lee and Crockett, Stacey Abrams, and more.
Being 82, there is old & then there is old! Some age like fine wine, like Pres Biden & others age much younger & become brittle & broken. Do "woke" people age like fine wine & the me me me people just become sour grapes? I am playing pickle ball today.
True, age is in many instances relative. No one comes close to guessing my age. Still, it is an issue for many and the Republicans will swift boat it to high heaven while ignoring their demented criminal candidate.
The display proved he is as 'sharp as a tack' and I have confidence he will show it off more with a wee bit of anger mixed in and a few 'MALARKEYS' too.
The ire at Garland has always been misdirected. Hur had a credible record - until now.
This is on Hur. Angling for a Trump lifetime appointment or a nomination at best or a Scalia Law School appointment at the wholly Charles Koch owned George Mason Univ.
James Lankford upholding coming to consensus through reasoned debate in negotiating the border bill.
Ken Buck consistently
criticizing MAGA.
Susan Collins supporting the aid supplemental. Of course, making a case for the military industrial complex (google Bath Iron works) but still mopping the floor with Mike Lee (always a good thing) and moving the bill forward for debate (a better thing.)
And Ilya Somin - Professor of Law at the Scalia Law School of the wholly Charles Koch George Mason University and the B. Kenneth Simon Chair in Constitutional Studies at the Cato Institute - coming out for keeping Trump off the ballot. (Colorado should've gotten him to argue the case.)
We need a lot more of that to erode the Trump phenomenon …but it can be done. They need to care about their country and break the oligarch’s power…They can still champion conservative issues and support conservative agendas, but in the interest of governing, not taking over and subverting our constitution ( a la, the Project 2025).
Even pearl-clutching Susie Collins can see that the chickens are starting to come home to roost. She may sound like she's an ancient but she's the same age as I am and we aren't decrepit yet! Or at all.
Sadly, it seems like EVERY Republican is running scared of the Orange Juggernaut. I keep thinking they could be rid of his oppressive control over them if they were to reject him en masse. In short time, his blather would wear thin and his power would fade.
But it is not the “tool” Trump that Republicans are running from. It is the money people whose behind-the-curtain hands wield that tool. The conservative money guys - call ‘em oligarchs? - have a long-term plan for cementing power, and they are the ones actually calling the shots.
As long as The Tool keeps spouting the conservative agenda, the oligarchs will hold onto him and the people they have in place to enact that agenda will be kept in line.
You would think that if some of these conservatives actually went to Washington to govern in a democratic system, and NOT to enact a long-term “take-over,” they would try to help break this stranglehold that makes our country look so inept and ludicrous on the world stage…
100% on target. He would be easy to ditch but follow the money, and he doesn't have enough. It's a scam game that repubs have signed on to at the price of any human characteristics. A whole pascal of Dorian Grays.
Yes, Jeri. And Dems need to deal with the real power threat .. defeat Trump and UNDO the power that SCOTUS gave to oligarchs. Not EASY, but not complicated, either. Put some real energy behind undoing Citizens United. And resist the Heritage Foundation and Project 2025.
Please recall a bunch of other causalities creating Citizens United.
The Powell in 1971 memo set up the Heritage Foundation, ALEC, and all the rest.
They arranged the offshoring of those millions of American working class jobs. They fixed alliances between unscrupulous U.S. billionaires
and murderous dictators, oligarchs abroad.
But before that -- all through the 1970s -- they killed the humanities in American schools, so elites would not reference what American artists could and did see happening.
I don't remember a time when Dems were cutthroat.. I remember many times when they should have been. Even in the 70's, they didn't take advantage of Nixon's treachery.
There’s a recording of a phone conversation between LBJ and Nixon about NOT revealing Republican treachery for fear of creating a public firestorm just before the 1968 election ( regarding Republicans destroying the Paris Peace talks that would have stopped the fighting in Vietnam before the election - in 1968, six years of war and death and many horrors would have been prevented, but the R’s scuttled it to put Nixon in office — and Johnson says it happened and Nixon admits it did, and NO ONE did anything about it ever ..
We think Nixon’s big crime was Watergate. HAH! Not even close. It was sneaking into the presidency on Dirty Tricks, including prolonging the Vietnam War and the destruction of so many lives here and abroad for Six More Years before cutting and running.
Talk about Democrats NOT holding Republican bad actors to account!
Reagan's anti-Union shenanigans. The NRA. Iran-Contra, the Florida vote that put Dubya over the top, ignoring Al Qaeda before 9/11, invading Iraq, torture, black sites, Trump!
Hard as it is to remember those treacherous times, we need to. Chump learned from the masters. Wish LBJ had made a big stink. Of course, I remember 1968. It reminds me of today. Time to make sure we don't have fifty more years of hell.
Ya think? I think Garland knew exactly what he was doing. As HCR pointed out, this makes the Republicans look like the assholes they are. And Faux News has been implicated as well, which is even better.
The 25% of the MAGANAZIs eat this BS up. But what about the 75% that find it abhorrent?
Will any of the maggots, including those at faux news, take the time and trouble first to read and consider calmly all 300-odd pages of the report and then be capable of parsing it and distinguishing factual statements and conclusions from opinions? Even the Grey Lady seems to fail at the attempt, as I count seven articles about the report, a "protective White House", and stepping aside due to age, on the "front page" of today's digital issue. https://www.nytimes.com/
Lynn- Fox and the Republican Congresscritters and Senators will select one or two sentences from the 300 pages and run with each one on consecutive days. We've seen it before we will see it again.
But that is exactly what all the dems are doing, Tinfoil.
You cant get angry because I said the emperor was naked.
If everybody here agrees on everything and somebody says something a bit different it doesn't necessarily mean they are angry... even if it makes you angry.
'In real life,' Trump and his insurrection partners lucked out with the meekest of AG's. Chalk that up to Biden, who is also none too happy with having picked Merrick Garland to head the Justice Department.
'The report from special counsel Robert Hur ultimately cleared Biden of any charges stemming from his handling of classified documents that were found at Biden’s think tank and his home. But Hur’s explanation for not bringing charges — that Biden would have persuaded the jury that he was a forgetful old man — upended the presidential campaign and infuriated the White House.' (Politico)
'Biden and his closest advisers believe Hur went well beyond his purview and was gratuitous and misleading in his descriptions, according to those two people, who were granted anonymity to speak freely. And they put part of the blame on Garland, who they say should have demanded edits to Hur’s report, including around the descriptions of Biden’s faltering memory.'
'In White House meetings, aides have questioned why Garland felt the need to appoint a special counsel in the first place, though Biden has publicly said he supported the decision.'
'While Biden himself has not weighed in on Garland’s future, most of the president’s senior advisers do not believe that the attorney general would remain in his post for a possible second term, according to the two people.'
“This has been building for a while,” said one of those people. “No one is happy”
'Frustration within the White House at Garland has been growing steadily.'
'Last year, Biden privately denounced how long the probe into his son was taking, telling aides and outside allies that he believed the stress could send Hunter Biden spiraling back into addiction, according to the same two people. And the elder Biden, the people said, told those confidants that Garland should not have eventually empowered a special counsel to look into his son, believing that he again was caving to outside pressure.'
'In recent weeks, President Biden has grumbled to aides and advisers that had Garland moved sooner in his investigation into former President Donald Trump’s election interference, a trial may already be underway or even have concluded, according to two people granted anonymity to discuss private matters. That trial still could take place before the election and much of the delay is owed not to Garland but to deliberate resistance put up by the former president and his team.' (Politico) See link below.
Good info Fern. My amateur take on Garland is that he is fair minded, rooted in a careful interpretation of the law - he acts like a judge.
I would have preferred that he act like a prosecutor. Trump could have been arrested and charged in 2021. And he certainly could have been jailed once the scope of the Mar A Lago top secret documents theft became evident.
For clarity, I use this question: "If I had taken thousands of top secret documents from the White House - shown them around, stored them in a bathroom where they could be taken or viewed - if I had done that, what would my fate have been?" I suspect I would be in prison. And if not, I probably couldn't be elected dog catcher.
And if I watched a riot/rebellion/invasion of the Capitol TV - as a public official with authority over thousands of people in uniform and I ignored phone calls pleading with me (with all the power I had) to stop the violence and restore order - and I had done nothing for almost 3 hours...what would my fate be?
AG Garland has been negligent from day one. I wish Kamala Harris had had the job then. The trials could have been completed by now.
I totally agree, Bill. I think Biden was gifting Garland with the DOJ job to make up for what Mitch did to him, stealing from him what would have been the perfect job for someone of his intelligence and temperament. And I've also always thought Kamala Harris would be a terrific DOJ. We're on the same page.
The report is transparently egregious, an exercise in character assassination. Biden's and the Dems counterplay was well played. They had all their ducks lined up, quack quack MAGA
Annabel, I have a question: Why didn’t Merrick Garland make Hur follow department policy to not discuss the investigation into someone that they do not plan to charge then or after they leave the presidency? Once again, rules about reporting on a finished or ongoing investigation have been broken (Comey was the first when he disclosed an ongoing investigation into Clinton while remaining quiet about an investigation into Russia’s interference/ties to Trump’s campaign).
If I were Biden’s staff, I’d add him to the daily briefing (daily for the next two weeks, then weekly until the election) with 1 question apiece from 5 reporters answered each time (determined by drawing a number to eliminate questions of bias).
It appears the entire Republican Party has lost any sense of integrity. The entire Party seems to have taken on the ethos and mentality of its leader. A once great Party disgraces itself every day. Sad!
James Carville was on Smerconish this am. James asked how it was that that far right attorney was given the investigation into Biden's docs. And why 14 of 15 special counsels were Republicans. He asked, aren't there any Democrat lawyers in Washington? My question is how the hell was Hur even able to release that hit job. Doesn't that stuff get reviewed? What the hell is Merrick Garland even doing there. https://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2024/02/10/smr-carville-on-dems-after-special-counsel-fallout.cnn
Indeed, the report by Special Counsel Robert Hur amounted to a partisan attack on President Biden. Despite his extensive and coherent responses during the investigation, certain media outlets chose to sensationalize Hur's insinuations rather than acknowledge the lack of evidence of wrongdoing.
Also, it's important to note that Robert Hur's role as Special Counsel does not grant him the expertise or authority to make medical assessments about President Biden's health or cognitive abilities. Such evaluations should be left to qualified medical professionals, rather than being used as political tools.
Bottom line? Hur's report was meant to serve as a substitute for a legitimate investigation.
Thank you for spotlighting Hur's brazen medical assessment without having a medical background. As a mental health therapist with training, I would lose all standing in my profession if I diagnosed someone without having had a therapeutic relationship with that person. Hur issuing his "observation" was not only a dirty political stunt but also criminally unethical....
Last week I wrote a letter to my local paper here in rural Maine. It's a weekly paper covering local events. But they will post most letters as long as they are civil.
Anyway, since HCR is a Mainer, I put in a plug for this newsletter. By word of mouth HCR's newsletter reaches a huge audience and it is growing.
If only a few people check it out it will be worth the 10 minutes it took to write the letter.
Hi Gary. Saw your letter in the American. Yes, they will print letters as long as they're civil, even if they're chock full of illogical lunacy. It's sort of entertaining in a way. I particularly love when they proclaim their "years in X industry" even though that has nothing to do with their sad arguments. I do hope more people in our area get to read HCR because it's obviously worth it.
Agree, The Hur "OP-ED" is outside the scope of the requirred report: suposition, inference, and what some used to refer to a "railroading". No reason to give this the energy to keep it on page 1 above the fold. Biden's accomplishments speak volumes; Hur speaks journalism: timing of that deposition, edits, relevance of questions and intent are suspect.
Oh my, how confused Mr. Hur seemed to be as he strayed from his task at hand: yes, there was a crime or no, there wasn't a crime; end of the matter. He dithers and strays from his appointed task throughout the report. He should have asked for help and used Pence’s one page report, clearing him of wrongdoing in the same situation, as a template. Tsk, tsk.
Is Mr. Hur going in for some medical testing? Perhaps it’s his diet, his political and media diet, that is interfering with his cognition? Perhaps the media is giving him privacy after such a display of professional inadequacy?
I agree that the Russians stood up to the task - for example, Stalingrad., frankly the entire eastern front. I agree the Russians, and the West, eventually outmanned and outgunned the Nazis. Hitler was a fool going east and west at the same time and thankfully the allies understood they needed each other. Post WWII- a different story entirely.
Indeed, that's an understatement if you take in youtube documentaries on the "Eastern front". Casualties in western Europe were far less than those experienced by the Soviets. Western docs still tend to overemphasize the importance of D Day and beyond, that is in the sense of under reporting what was going on elsewhere. When i was kid and beyond, by and large you'd hardly know the Russians et al were even around.
Greg Abbott, Texas governor, uses a wheelchair. It’s OK —- he isn’t a Democrat. What he lacks in mobility he makes up for in cruelty. Therefore he is macho enough for his voters.
I'm really at the point with the over-educated, under-intelligent, otherwise-unemployable Ivy League trust fund babies of the DC Press Corpse and their embrace and celebration of their moron stupidity that I will love seeing the surprise on their faces as they stare out from the wrong side of the barbed-wire fence in the FEMA camp Trump's planning on sending them to if he wins. And they'll have no one but themselves to blame for being there, since they decided to put their thumbs on the scale for him.
Welch's statement, “Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?” could be directed at the editorial offices of Faux Snooze, MSNBC (which I find myself watching less and less of as they get more desperate with their clickbait), the Cretin News Network, the New York Times, the Washington Post and all the minor political press in DC.
They've all decided that the algorithm at FarceBook - get people upset and they'll keep coming back - is the one for them. Damned ignoramus fools that they are.
At this point I peruse the NY Times OpEd only; Krugman, Bouie, Blow, Collins, etc. and I do their mini crossword every morning. (avg 60-90 seconds) For straight news the Times has melted down to the "If it bleeds, it leads" school of journalism.
Krugman has a great smackdown of the Hur Report this morning.
I read Krugman's newsletter and columns. He is usually correct about the international and US economy and when he isn't he let's you know he was wrong.
Robert (not Ben) Hur really pissed him off and he let him have it. Great column.
I used to think that also, Marj. I too, have cancelled my subscriptions to both NYT & WaPo. It was the only action I could think of that telegraphed my stance that they were seriously undermining democracy. Yet, this leaves them to make money off those that will not hold them accountable through their Letters to the Editor. Will they listen to citizens with no affect to their bottom-line? I don’t think so. Plus, they are owned by very rich people who probably favor the cash-steria a trump presidency will cause. The basic fact is: tump is good for advertiser-based, shareholder-owned media. They will squeeze ever bloody cent they can out of that poison apple. I love the idea of “Push-Back”, but how exactly when you don’t buy-in to them in the first place?
In my time at the WH as a stenographer reporting the daily press briefings, this is exactly the way they behaved. It was some years later (maybe when Reagan became president), that they were "forced" to raise their hands and be called upon to ask their question. The big wigs like Helen Thomas (from UPI) always went first, though.
Thanks, Frank. I haven't thought about my time there in years but somebody says something that sparks a memory and I can't help myself but comment. Hope you don't mind.
Morning, Ally! Alas, I was too young to realize how amazing it was. Sometimes being "in the room where it happened" and I didn't have a clue; just working to make sure I didn't eff up!
And it’s pretty interesting timing of the release of Hur’s “report/political take-down piece”. It comes as the gop implode on the immigration-is-our-issue debacle. The MSM will milk it for all it’s worth, but it’s a cynically, calculated play.
They think it shows them "standing up to the government." Most of them are sad they weren't born yet so they could go to the Five O'Clock Follies at MACV press HQ back in during Vietnam.
Yup. I am honestly not sure if Hur meant to write his hack job from a partisan perspective. It's just that something so open-and-shut wouldn't allow him his moment to be A VERY THOROUGH AND IMPORTANT PERSONAGE, so a couple hundred pages of editorializing was in order, just to make sure everyone knows how thorough and important and unafraid-to-provoke he is.
You'd think prior to distribution, his report would be reviewed by whoever his superior happens to be. Why did that individual permit it to go out in that condition, with all that extra editorializing?
In other words, Hur's boss oughta have some 'splainin to do.
Uh, editing or otherwise interfering with a Special Counsel's report negates the entire purpose of the Special Counsel. The entire point is to respect independence regardless of personal feelings. We didn't like the spin Barr put on the Mueller Report, now did we?
I get that liberals have soured on "they go low, we go high," and for good reason. But trying to out-corrupt the corrupters first just hands them a victory they didn't even have to work for. You can't beat them by becoming them.
James, I too was appalled at the press corp conduct…the height of incivility…like a school of piranhas scenting blood in the water. I immediately went to the WH website to send Biden a supportive “email” & called them a gaggle of cackling geese & applauded his restraining his “Irish” in responding to them & his perfect response to Doocy (mic drop!) & that I felt his pain when some dobab asked him about misremembering Beau’s death date. Unfortunately a just replaced internet modem kinda messed with me being able to send it, so the WH never rec’d it. Working on a fix to that. This, I think, is a cross Hur will have to bear going forward, just as Comey has.
No decency whatsoever. The try to make virtue of it. McCarty had his rabid following too, but not everyone in the GOP was buying it. After Nixon fell, they seemed to decide to brazen it out no matter what.
Nixon learned what works in American politics from George Wallace, and the Republicans have been usung those methods ever since. The Southern Strategy is effective, unfortunately, and that is an indictment of white American culture.
The people in chump’s crosshairs (top of list) are those who caved to his demands (ask Ronna, etc) and others who think they are buying some degree of loyalty. They don’t understand his algorithm…. Comey surely didn’t. And there is a mountain of others. His pardon list is a short one.
TC this is exactly right. The media owners are laughing all the way to the bank while they have their trained circus performers keep backing themselves right into a cage of hungry lions. What do these shortsighted journalists think will happen if they influence America into authoritarianism? Do they want to slaves of State Media and fear for their lives or their families lives if their work is unsatisfactory? Do they think what was done to Charlie Hebdo staff or Jamal Khashoggi can’t happen in America (or by Americans??)?
It is similar to a conversation I had with a Red State Dem voter about her routinely hearing people plan for when they will get to round up all the immigrants, liberals, LGBTQIA+, Black/POC’s, “feminazis”, etc to put them in work camps and gun down as many down of “them” as possible.
I told her they’d end up being sorry about it. She assumed I’d meant they’d feel remorse. I told her that they’d end up regretting it because they’d end up destroying America and their own freedoms. United we stand, but divided we fall.
If they did manage to cage and gun down all those who vote Blue, liberals, Black/POC, supporters of abortion, women who believe in equality & rights for themselves, LGBTQIA+ individuals and their families, friends, & supporters, non-Christians, handicapped & disabled people, and immigrants, etc. - basically, the majority of people in America, they’d set into motion a chain of events most would never recover from.
A divided and damaged America would become anyone’s “meat”. We’d no longer be in a lynchpin position to help keep China & Russia from taking over unwilling countries or a major contributor to other countries economies and military protection. This is why our known enemies (with the aid of our own oligarchs, especially the ones who own or have heavy influence over media companies) have been using mis/disinformation attacks against us for more than a decade. Some of our allies who aren’t too busy battling other countries, would capitalize on our weak state and take advantage.
Basically, anyone can swoop in, take over the parts of America they want, and thank the leaders of the violent losers who destroyed their own country for doing their dirty work for them before executing them all. Those who survive will never be free to vote, own guns, or live without regret.
I say we are already witnessing the fact that it has begun. How else would the major papers survive without already being captured? Media is the vehicle to control the masses. Cable learned that early and quickly. Broadcast and print took a little longer to capture, but the manufactured death of “Fairness-doctrine, for-the-common-good” journalism allowed monied interest to swoop in with the infotainment-model of horse-race, sucker-born-every-minute news. Think of all the billions - if not trillions- of dollars put into play by the media keeping us all in a state of fear and outrage? “How much are the peons willing to pay for comfort/peace-of-mind?” They laugh all the way to the bank. It’s the new gold rush. How do we outsmart that?
Don’t forget that most people don’t read all print news they come access, only headlines, and the media outlet creates those and not the journalists. For all most of us know, the articles most of the main newspapers might not be so bad. It’s the far fewer tv personalities who read off sound-bytes put out by the mainstream media outfits who seem to generate must of the damage along with the biased headlines.
People do have to work. Journalists and media workers are no different. It just sucks that we don’t have any in mainstream media who don’t use bias and negative-emotion stirring tactics to get clicks & ratings. There no one trustworthy. There are non-mainstream independents out there, but it’s not always easy to find good ones and to afford all the different ones to get a balanced view.
I agree Lisa. I am finding in my life, that I am turning to substack writers/podcasters like Heather, Robert Hubbell, Joyce Vance, Robert Reich, Brian Taylor Cohen, Timothy Snyder, and of course Simon Rosenberg’s Hopium for my information. They dissect what I have read, or the headlines dominating the clickbait-sphere, and ground it in context and fact. Maybe we are living through the information evolution of civil society.
There are ample examples over the years of Republicans eating their own. Give them unilateral control of the country, they will rule by fear. The media is setting us up for tyranny, aka a redux of China under Mao, and today Russia under Putin. The only people who will be completely safe are the rich robber baron who have funded this coup.
You are so right Lisa and have put my thoughts into words, well done! My late husband and I lived in countries while we were in the US military. It's not a "pretty" sight.
I wonder how they and their advertisers would respond to a mass boycott. They need a reminder that their readership is not the Trump cult, but rational, fair minded people.
You’re right about the press corps, TC. The problem is that they come from too small a pool (namely, people whose families can keep them afloat during years of unpaid internships after college), so even if we got the best of that pool, they would be nowhere near as good as the journalists we’d get if the pool were widened to the whole population (or even half of it) of people who might aspire to be journalists. We’d need well-paid internships to expand the pool, and the management is not about to stand for that.
It's like Roger Corman's operation in Hollywood. We didn't get paid a lot, but we got "enough," and if we worked quickly and well, we got to do another. Out of that came Jack Nicholson, actor; Robert Towne, screenwriter; James Cameron, legend; and many others including yours truly, just to name a few. Ron Howard made his first movie "Gone in Sixty Seconds" for Roger to prove to people he really was a director. Then in the 90s, when the Kool Kidz from the Ivy League found Hollywood and flooded it with interns who worked for free and lived on their trust funds, they put all those people like us who were coming along after out of the business. One time in mid-90s, my boss at Hope Street wanted to use Roger's sound stage, so I went over to check it out. Instead of the clunkers we had down in the parking garage, they were all Beemer 323s and Mercedes 190s and Volvos and such. The place was overrun with "interns." I asked Roger which one was likely the next James Cameron; he said "beats me!"
Chris Hayes' "Twilight of the Elites" is a good study of this phenomenon, how the upper class comes along and gets involved in something and fucks it up.
At the same time you were noticing those expensive cars, TCinLA, the peers of those intern-trust-fund drivers were in Moscow and all the other key cities of the former Soviet empire seeking nomenklatura in whom to invest.
These young Americans, grads of Ivy League and other high finance and M.B.A. programs, had learned zero humanities, acquired zero morality during their years in biz ed. But they found the former officials of the old red star states, and the former secret police in all the universities, and invested in collections of them who would be the new oligarchs robbing public resources of all those lands.
And who was organizing this concoction of capitalism's new avatars? The U.S. Department of State.
Your original points, TCinLA, now recall to me something else.
When I eventually returned to the U.S. (then, from many years in various countries of eastern Europe), I noticed church parking lots.
They were full of the most expensive, gaudy, tricked-out SUVs and pick-up trucks.
Baptist, evangelical were the worst -- huge investments in the highest-priced vehicles of U.S. sprawl culture. Why bother to show up at all for a dutiful hour or so at some "Christian" outpost? The real investment was time at the shopping mall. Time at the franchise restaurants somewhere out on neon row.
America had changed. Gotten fat.
No wonder MAGA today. So many millions not only lost jobs to the billionaire and dark money offshoring, but had gotten quite lost on their own, too.
I didn’t know any of that but am not surprised. When you want the best people, you have to select from the biggest possible pool. That’s why universal education through high-school, by law, is such a great contributor to a smoothly operating society. Besides the Hayes book, there was an article in The Atlantic several years ago explaining how the well-off make noise about the “meritocracy” while investing their effort in pulling up ladders to make sure their kids the “ocracy” regardless of merit, leaving the rest scrambling around trying to find a leg up. I was in the generation that Sputnik put through grad school. Wouldn’t have gotten that far without the NDEA program, which greatly expanded the pool of people with access to high-quality science and engineering education.
I no longer watch any news other than an occasional local news show, getting all I need to know from HCR, Joyce Vance, Robert Hubble and a few others here and there. Too many folks with zero integrity!
Reading through this, and seeing the reference to tfg's perfect phone call with Zelensky, it struck me that this blocking of funds for Ukraine is his revenge.
Absolutely. Carlson's activities in Moscow remove any doubt. Putin's a spymaster. 16 years as a KGB foreign intelligence officer. He knows all the tricks of the trade.
Thank you as always Heather for your continuing work to provide well-researched LFAA's for our consideration.
I do not think the media is "falling" for this strategy -they actively embrace it and monetize it. If, by the 2nd quarter of the Super Bowl, the score is 40-0, who will watch the halftime show and all of the advertising? Media wants a close and controversial race. They see an incumbent who has continued to govern well, economic policy and legislation that has led to more resilience, greater national security, and addressing climate (although certainly not to the extent we would like to see).
The reality is that a decent Administration is running against a criminal organization. If the media was acting in a capacity to strengthen democracy (in their former, vital role as a Fourth Estate), this election would not be close. They would be dissecting GOP policy such as "trickle down" 'economics', they would be talking about the Trump administration causing the national debt to explode by 25% in just one term, and covering the fact that criminals like Manafort and Stone received pardons -because criminal organizations just pardon themselves. They would be continuing to cover the violence and extremism incited by Trump, his co-conspirators, and his accessories after the fact. They would be talking about the dereliction of duty in the House and Senate -for their failure to convict Trump in the first or second impeachment. They would be talking about the continuing lies, cover-up, and the actual politicization of House Committees led by incompetents like Jim Jordan and James Comer.
Media is not falling for anything. They know precisely what they are doing. They have abdicated all responsibility to democracy and the American system -in pursuit of advertising revenue and profit. Since they continue to broadcast on public airwaves -they should be paying massive licensing fees -as they no longer serve a role in the public interest.
On a connected note, I’m working to bring “Kitchen Table Democracy” back to America and anywhere people aspire toward a meaningful democracy, justice, and equity…
In the United States, in 2024, democracy is on the ballot. Recent research states 75% of people consume their news on social platforms. With so much at stake, do you trust Musk and Zuckerberg -or is it time for an ad-free, subscriber-supported civic social network that doesn't sell or share data with marketers, shadowy political operatives, or billionaires.
It's getting tougher for the networks and the newspapers to get their word out with fewer than 50% of US households getting cable and newspapers losing readers all the time. The only reason I kept cable is because Spectrum knocked $10 a month off my Internet fee if I kept super basic cable. It includes every station that no one watches and no local stations.
which reminds, need to redo cable to basic or drop it totally, their "special offer" just expired and the one i temporarily replaced it with has 106 channels which are mostly irrelevant to my interests.,,,, several hours later, done!
I unplugged from cable years ago. I was telling a friend last night it was one of my best decisions. Entertainment is not what it used to be.
I went to a local movie theatre last night for the first time in many years, I wanted to see this movie bc it was filmed in my neighborhood. I was bored to tears.
In New York City, Spectrum provides some of the best local coverage available. Since I'm not a big sports fan, I hang in with them. If they ever lose Errol Louis and Inside City Hall, I might give them up, though.
Really? If we sensor this guy, we are doing a dis-service to ourselves by only listening to POVs that we all share. One of the supposedly great things about democracy, is that everyone has a voice, so let's not be too hasty in throwing out others with different perspectives, lest we become the hypocrites we despise.
I don't mind listening to different POV's that are represented. It is when the other characteristics of the posts become argumentative, insulting, or repetitive that I tend to report comments. There are three regular posters with whom I disagree on about 98% of what they post. Two of them I will read, and occasionally...well, rarely...agree with, and add to their comments. The third? NEVER.
totally agree. It is disappointing that social media could be such a great place to discuss ideas, and has mostly devolved into attacking the character and/or motivations of posters with differing viewpoints. I rarely look at Twitter anymore unless I want to laugh at the outrage of morons who, virtually anonymously, post ridiculous nonsense as if they know something the rest of us don't. I suppose, it's entertainment.
They could also suppress reply streams unless the reader expands them. I’ve asked Substack for this change, but they don’t seem much interested in conveniences for their readers.
They are grossly lonely fools sitting in front of a screen. Makes them feel important, if only to themselves, these trolls. Like little men behind their big guns. Ignore them, for true.
A lot of the trumpist's line of jive has been unraveling lately, so the trolls have been activated to keep the jive alive. You might even notice that they're just a tiny bit more shrill than previously. Desperation will do that.
And again, the things Dr. Heather has to say really gets them upset. By the end of the day, this letter might be another 3-troll post! Pretty good, huh?
Please read Robert Hubbel's sub stack today "going on the offensive". I pasted some of his wording (hope that's Okay Robert) into a letter to the editor in which I held the unfairness of the NYT reporting under his nose again. This time I cancelled my long time subscription and Account. They won't miss my $20 every 4 weeks, but maybe R.H. will be happy to receive another subscriber to his very good sub stack. Would you consider going "on the offensive" too?
As regards the NYT, I was looking for a way to counter their "news" accounts about Biden. "All the News That's Fit to Print" leapt to mind. When I searched it, here's what I found:
"In 1897, Adolph S. Ochs, the owner of The New York Times, created the famous slogan 'All the News That's Fit to Print,' which still appears on the masthead of the newspaper today. He wrote the slogan as a declaration of the newspaper's intention to report the news impartially."
And here's the kicker: Today, February 10, is "All the News That's Fit to Print Day."
"All the News That’s Fit to Print Day is celebrated annually on February 10. The phrase 'all the news that’s fit to print' holds significant prominence in American journalism. It took a permanent place in the upper left corner, or left 'ear,' of the New York Times masthead. This motto has been interpreted as a 'war cry' for honest journalism and admired for its timeless statement of purpose. Interestingly, it first appeared on an illuminated advertising sign above New York’s Madison Square in early October 1896, shortly after Adolph S. Ochs acquired the New York Times. So, on this day, let’s celebrate the pursuit of quality news and the dedication of journalists who strive to bring us the stories that matter!"
Nothing to celebrate here IMO, but I will suggest that the NYT writers look to their "left ear" to remind themselves of their mission to report the news impartially.
Of course, Bruce! I wanted to find something to write to them first, before canceling. And this find is just the thing to build on to let them know why.
My wife dropped her subscription a couple of editors ago. If it wasn't for Krugman, I would drop it too. If only he would stop writing for the NYTimes and switch to Substack.
I canceled my NYT subscription, too. I still listen to The Daily but even that is starting to become another megaphone for TFG. It’s disappointing to say the least.
This is only one more example of the depths to which Republicans have sunk. There is no redemption for them. We have to defeat them at the ballot box, every last one of them. All of the members of the House who voted not to certify the 2020 election have to be booted from office, and the Senators who could not find the courage to impeach T**** along with them. Traitors all.
They are doing so because the vast majority of their supporters want them to. This is on the American people, not on Trump or any other politician. Or, to narrow it down a bit, it’s on the roughly 60% of white Americans and almost nobody else who voted for Trump in 2020, never looked back, and are very likely to do so again in 2024. They didn’t win in 2020, but they have a lot more going for them this year. Dobbs might beat them, but that’s about the only hope.
I had been a Republican up to 1996, hoping thet would step back from the disgusting Newt Gingrich/Frank Luntz GoPac memo, "Language: A Key Mechanism of Control" and clean their own house again like they did when Nixon went too far. I had been considering leaving for about 2 years and what finally pushed me over was a highly placed fund raiser asking a few of us to join in fighting dirtier than Democrats.
At the time, I thought we were already 6 times dirtier from the numbers of unethical opposition researchers and operatives like Lee Atwater and Roger Stone (the guys I most wanted the party to have anything to do with). I thought the fund raiser was hinting at recruiting us as ALEX type candidates they wanted to groom/manage and get installed anywhere they could be depended upon to follow the instructions of true sponsors (who didn't want their hired help doing much thinking of their own or listening to any of constituents (other than doing some useful personal favors for ones they could persuade to blindly follow them forever, no matter how much they abused others).
I was raised to believe my elected representatives most closely represented everyone in their district, but also every other human impacted by our actions in support of the goals in our Declaration of Independence.
None may be perfect but I've seen too much deliberate isolation and hyper partisanship promoted by my old party (so changed from what it started as) that I will probably remain Independent forever. (though finding it much easier to work with and support most Democrats willing to accept Independent input and participation).
And please, in this POTUS election, make your vote-anti fascist by giving it to Biden. He needs every last one of us to throw the traitors off the stage, once and for all!
Biden has evolved into the most experienced and effective President we can expect to lead all of the people even though he is prevented from being able to persuade enough to support the best of what he might wish to do. Lincoln had the same problem in many ways, with people who would support preserving the union and ending slavery, but passed laws banning them from living in states like Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, and I think Kansas.
Lincoln was late in accepting colonization of Liberia as a possible way of keeping the support of those who would free them but not let them live in the same state, a difficult and odious compromise that at least held together enough to defeat what could have become a government dominated by rich slave holders who could buy up most of the western states if slavery was allowed to expand.
Biden gets us 75% to 95% of desired results possible (and is definitely the one I'll vote for), compared to the alternative that would destroy our country and much of the free world as far as the goals of our Declaration of Independence.
Remember that Kyrsten Sinema (spelling) who is now independent worked so hard on negotiating the national border security bill along with Rep. Lankford and Dem. Chris Murphy.
The constituency she represents is a difficult one for almost any Democrat to win, I at least appreciate she helps keep the whole Senate out of Republican's hands. It's a bit like the enemy of my enemy may be a critical friend (better than someone like Kari Lake).
I liked the bit about "Awkward Coalitions" but I was opposed to Newt Gingrich from the first I ever saw of him attacking supposed corruption by Jim Wright then my old party doing 3 to 6 times as much of things like what they accused Wright of what I seem to vaguely remember (book deal trickery that really stood out to me with Dick Armey it seems as in https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2012/12/dick-armey-quit-freedomworks-over-book-deal-really/320824/). Worse were the Glen Beck supposed criticism of Saul Alinsky's book, Rules for "Radicals" and what seemed bulk purchases of the book make it seem a best seller that was passed out as examples of what the opponets were doing (to me with a wink and a nod to actally use similar tactics even more than any implied Democrats did).
I only looked a little bit into such things and may have a faulty memory or understanding of all they were doing but their dirty intentions were very clear to me from within what was left of the party I grew up with.
and supposed sales records of Glen Beck's "The Overton Window"
Accomplices all. That evilstephic congress-chick should be indicted on her threats and assertions that she will do all in her power to throw the 2024 election to the feeble orange one.
Sadly gerrymandered has eliminated most balanced constituencies. "Safe" is the majority now, and why MAGAs will be back after 2024 regardless SANS Trump we surely do trust!
Robert Hur will return to his lucrative position at Gibson Dunn and then slowly wither on the vine. No other partner will trust him and
established clients will avoid him. And, once DT decides he no longer can carry his water, he will push him under the bus. What a waste of such a talented and potential jurist. I wonder if his immigrant parents are still proud of their son.
If Biden is all those things, then he is clearly a f**king genius with superpowers beyond any other human his age, including any republican politician. The man is unstoppable. He brought us back from the brink of hell with one hand tied behind his back. The loser party tried treason, propaganda, a dirty tricks menu that Segretti would have been proud of, and a SC that has regressed to the 1800’s. Even a smidgeon of Joe is many times the man that any of his detractors are. But they are so wrong. He is all there, and not guilty of jackshit. I say to MSM, have you no decency. It’s way past time. Just like with the first traitor MCCarthy…
Absolute truth can get one in deep poop. It's only as I have lived or concluded from painful experiences. No preacher here, just one who has been woke for what swirls around me.
I have seen the end of our President’s press conference which had gone well until he decided to return to the podium and confuse the Mexican and Egyptian leaders. A single drop of blood in the water and the sharks have gone ballistic in a feeding frenzy. Politics is not fair. If our President loses to Trump in the next election, the world ends as we know it. Our globe gets cooked, American freedoms disappear in the drive to revenge, Ukraine goes south and every autocratic leader in the world is given carte blanche to expunge democracy-advocates and anyone else they don’t like. No more blood in the water please. This is truly serious.
He didn't even confuse the two leaders though! If he had done that then of course I would have been concerned and perhaps had some rethinking to do! But it was totally, utterly, incredibly clear through all other context that he was talking about the Egyptian aid and conversations with al-Sisi (who he correctly mentioned by name), and then his brain had the word border coming up and his mouth put the word Mexico in there first, like he's been doing all month. It was a total classic straight-outta-sitcom brain fart at the most inopportune moment, but nothing more. People can't even describe the mistakes correctly! Oy vey!
America has been fortunate to have Joseph R. Biden as its president, but he made a deeply unfortunate mistake in appointing Merrick Garland as the country's Attorney General. Where might the US be if the AG hadn't waited interminably long to bring justice to Criminal #1, Donald J. Trump, including how acting in a more timely manner could have impacted 2024's presidential election?
Fern, I had initially trusted that Garland’s slow pace was deliberate but now fear that his pace actually is deliberate. I’m not smart enough to critique the inner workings of law enforcement, but it now seems to me that Garland is in fear of being the ultimate enforcer lest he be judged as such
Its confounding to that laws are so complicated that the Supreme Court parses the difference between “office” and “officer”
Meeting out Justice is crucial to having laws. Garland is failing me
Dave, my questions about Merrick Garland's effectiveness began after the Jan. 6th House Committee's investigation ended in December, 2022. There wasn't a DOJ indictment of Trump until, June 2023.
'A Washington Post investigation found that more than a year would pass before prosecutors and FBI agents jointly embarked on a formal probe of actions directed from the White House to try to steal the election. Even then, the FBI stopped short of identifying the former president as a focus of that investigation.'
'A wariness about appearing partisan, institutional caution, and clashes over how much evidence was sufficient to investigate the actions of Trump and those around him all contributed to the slow pace. Garland and the deputy attorney general, Lisa Monaco, charted a cautious course aimed at restoring public trust in the department while some prosecutors below them chafed, feeling top officials were shying away from looking at evidence of potential crimes by Trump and those close to him, The Post found.' (WAPO)
Fern, My Benefit of the Doubt wrt Garland is wearing thin. His efforts to restore the reputation of DOJ is hampering his fundamental duty, to apply Justice in a hierarchy of importance. If it takes decades to prosecute the Mob Boss and we only have a year, The Mob WILL be our boss as Garland Fiddles
Someone like Kamala Harris should have been appointed. A really competent DA or state AG. Garland is a judge of the old school. A deliberate and careful person Admirable but wrong for this job at this time.
I've seen suggestions elsewhere that Biden move Harris to Justice and find a different running mate. Might be a good idea. Elizabeth Warren? I'm not keen on having someone without Washington experience.
"And now the media appears to be falling for this strategy yet again."
They're not falling for it -- they're co-creating it.
I'm baffled by this. The right wing owners of these papers are so desperate to not pay taxes, they're actively undermining our democracy and the intent of the fourth estate to keep the electorate informed rather than putting their thumbs on the scale to tell us what to think. "Money at all costs" -- human dignity, the planet, truth, civility -- has got to stop. We must actively participate in our democracy and vote like never before if we want to live lives of our choosing--not some Christofascist demagogue. Only then can we truly turn this tide, starting with expanding the Supreme Court.
I want to scream at Hur and his comments. I am so sick of the fiction that the GOP creates then repeats until it has a life of its own. And the media - apparently too ignorant to call a political hack job what it is.......
Funny thing is, meanwhile, Americans have a Constitution. And this funny little document specifies some remedies for those who go over the line: section three, article 14.
The nine Supreme Court justices all took oaths to uphold this document. Now they're mostly all pretending otherwise, and feigning discomfort that one state may act all by itself -- as if justices might be inconvenienced at what appears to be lone, willy-nilly action.
One justice spoke otherwise. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson spoke of American democracy -- as if justices might recall their oaths to defend the Constitution, as if the logical possibility remains that they cease being alarmed at what individual states might do, and see the massive damage to the republic of Republican repeated dirt, dirt, dirt, and worse, what a mad insurrectionist can do -- tried to do.
The Supreme Court might act, supremely, and strike the insurrectionist-in-chief from ballots in all 50 states.
Phil, oaths are a fiction of Honor. They mean absolutely nothing in The Book of Legality as defined now by SCOTUS. Consequently, the “Court” has provided itself Carte Blanc to ignore that which they (disingenuously) swore oath to
“Honor”, oh how I wish Bob Dylan had written one more verse to “My Back Pages”
As someone who swore an oath to both the US Constitution and the Oregon Constitution for 35 years, it is obvious to me that an oath means absolutely nothing to these people.
Ally, when I joined the Army (on Richard Nixon's and Joan Baez's) birthday in 1968 I swore to uphold and defend the Constitution, like everyone else. In my mind, many years later, that oath, and everything that was behind it, and everything that went into it, has never changed. It seems at least as important now as it did then, and maybe even more important. If you ask me, the war I was in was a fool's errand. But that has not changed the way I feel about my dedication to the idea of defending the Constitution. I always struggled with "My country, right or wrong", but I evolved to the point where I can focus solely on the Constitution, and regard it as paramount in regard to all other considerations of duty and honor etc.
Some people out there have been talking about convening a constitutional convention, and you know they want to rewrite the Constitution to suit their agenda(s). Bad idea. Compare Rep Matt Gaetz to James Madison or James Monroe. It would not end well.
True. They could apply the constitution and save democracy, but I very much fear they won’t. The only ones who might lean towards a decision to strike T off the ballot will probably be bullied into submission. This is very very sad.
Unpacking the special prosecutor's report: "I have absolutely nothing. But that won't stop me from taking a thoroughly partisan and inappropriate swipe at the president".
My Mom is batting a .248 on getting the right name of the celebrity actor that was in that movie from however many years ago. She has never referred to my doctor by the right name, and today called Chapstick a utensil. (We were having Chinese food). On the other hand, she spent the week filing all the paperwork to apply for Medicare, helping her sister with my Grandma's estate, and helping my brother switch *his* healthcare, with nary an error made. Everyone trusts her to do this more than anyone, which is strange because I guess she's clearly senile.
My Dad had a long conversation with me tonight about the various federal court immunity cases. He mixed up the states involved and couldn't remember the names of 1 or 2 of the Justices, but had a full grasp of all the concepts and reminded me of a few theories I was unaware of. Go figure. He had the day off from his foreign trade paralegal job, which requires he communicate with multiple countries on all continents over sensitive matters, where any mistake he makes could cost someone a million dollars despite the fact that the original documents are in languages he does not speak and everyone is on a different timezone and working under differing sets of law. The other day he said El Salvador when he meant Ecuador, so I don't know why they still trust him to do that job, because I guess he's clearly senile.
Come to think of it, I probably can't judge this. Not because I don't have a medical degree, but because *I* am clearly senile too. I can't remember what I had for lunch yesterday (eggs? fish?... carrots??). I don't know what date my dentist appointment is off the top of my head, how many weeks it has been since the last one, what the name of the street the office's address is, what MY address was in college, 98% of what I learned in college, or what year I started taking classes again. It's only going to get worse. I should see if I can get on disability before I hurt someone!
For lord's sake, the President is an old man. He makes embarrassing verbal slips, including some doozies this week. I know most of us here are fans, but let us not sugar coat this. He's *always* been a gaffe machine, and there is no way it was going to get better with age. However, that is COMPLETELY IRRELEVANT to his experience, knowledge, temperament, and abilities to make tough decisions and carry out his duties. As a citizen, I am satisfied with his accomplishments and feel he shares my values, which is why I will be supporting him again. His opponent also is an old man who makes embarrassing verbal slips. My opposition to him is not because of these whoopsies, but because everything he says and does on purpose is absolutely damnable and psychotic.
I am so deeply tired of this shallow bullsh!t, I cannot tell you guys.
What an astutely, perceptive commentary of real life! The older we all get, the more real knowledge we carry with us. Some of it gets garbled in the verbal retelling. But what never changes is a person’s character. I think we have plenty of evidence that speaks clearly to the character of President Biden and the lack there of in former President Trump. Whether or not you even agree with his politics, there is not one ounce of evidence that President Biden will ever, under any circumstances, stray from his oath to the US Constitution. Conversely, we all know, beyond a shadow of doubt, that Trump has no integrity, whatsoever, and will burn the Constitution as soon as he is given the chance. He tried to do it before and he and his cohorts are hell bent on usurping our constitutional republic once and for all in this next election. Integrity be damned!
I pray that Liz Cheney is not the only Republican with a spine who is willing to support the Constitution despite party politics, knowing this election will be the deciding factor between democracy or fascism. We cannot allow Trump anywhere near the oval office ever again!
And Adam Kinsinger. That"s two...
And my Republican partner who said last nite he can no longer be Republican.....changing to Independent.
Our next door neighbor, an ex R pol who is now an Independent, but votes mostly D. He can't stand what the R party has become.
Are the R’s finally removing their heads from tRump’s butt?
I have 3 sisters, life long R’s. Two have switched to D’s and one to an I. My brothers are Trumper’s. I’m a life long pragmatic D.
What was the tipping point, Kathy?
I think I accidentally answered you above.......not in the correct place. My age, .....sigh.
Bravo!
About time!!!!
YES!!!!
I somewhat agree with you, MayPat. However, IMO there is a difference. Ms. Cheney is in front of the TV cameras speaking loudly and frequently to the nation about the dangers of allowing Trump and Co. back in the White House.
I’ve been reading Adam Kinsinger’s Substack messages for a couple months now and I would describe his message delivery as more like speaking quietly behind his hand so only the persons on either side of him actually hear what he’s saying. His messages clearly say (complain?) that R’s are not standing up to Trump, R’s are no longer attempting to govern in a moderate, center-right manner, R’s are embarrassing themselves. R’s are sadly succumbing to the fear of MAGA retaliation and threats by either going along with the “freedom caucus” or “retiring” from political office. (Adam went so far as too physically relocate his family to Texas because of harassment in his home State of Illinois). I haven’t seen any statements crediting the current administration for its great work and accomplishments. Just criticism of what R’s are doing or not doing.
Interestingly, just a few days ago he actually ran his own survey to gauge who was reading his Substack - the responders were overwhelmingly Democrats. Very few identified as R’s or former R’s or even Independents. His own survey proved that his message is not reaching the audience who needs to hear what he is trying to say. His commentary strikes me as a sad lament of what other R’s could or should do to stop Trump from regaining office.
Yes, you make excellent and important points. Just sounds like he found a new choir, us Dems. But when I watched his podcast with Mary Trump and Katie Couric (yes Dems) I felt some hope
https://youtu.be/37mnCQrQmYo?si=RLTHpVPhSPpq6vMO.
As the Repblican party splits, he is speaking to those moderates.
Maybe out of the steam here but as someone said: "a vote is a chess move , not a valentine " Good to remember for R that hold their nose & vote for a D.
MaryPat, thank you SO much for linking this YouTube video!! What an impressive, informational conversation. It helped me realize Adam IS doing more, and perhaps being a louder voice, than I thought just from following his SubStack. I so appreciate your sharing this interview.
Question: have you read his book? Do you recommend?
Well, it was the R's who tanked the immigration bill because dumb Donald wants to run on immigration as an issue. I cannot for the life of me, figure out how he thinks he has a winning hand on immigration since he tanked the possibility of passing some sort of immigration reform. Donald tRump is a dunce and a bully; he proves it every time he opens his mouth. The R's lack the nerve to take down tRump.
If trump was so good, why didn't he solve the problem when he was president? He did have some good ideas for the wall. Put solar panels on it. Make it transparent so drug smugglers could be caught throwing bags of drugs over the wall. He failed last time, hat makes everyone think he will succeed now. If he does, it will come at a terrible price.
Trump knows that his supporters are conditioned to believe lies, his and those on Fox and all the other hard-right news outlets.
Romney hired private security people. With that, Jan 6th, and the threats to the juries and judges, one would surmise that trumpers are violent. Not all but it only takes one bullet to kill someone.
Chris Christie also ~
And the Lincoln Project people, and Michael Steele.
Thank you Carol Ann Bishop.
Let me intercede here... Donny J. frump is the Repub's chosen poster boy, even with all his baggage, leaving the once proud GOP rudderless. Of course the Repub Party is in a world of hurt too. But there is hope for the politcians of that bent; Liz Cheney. As a lifelong member of the Democrat Party I have to continue to wonder when the fools will wake up. Likely not even after the end of 2024. Sad.
Amen!
Excellent comment -thanks.
And @Will, from Cal, don’t forget about his team. I trust the people BIden has around him. I trust that they are driven by policy, not power. (Often to our short-term detriment.) I trust that the Continuity of Government will steady the ship should Biden, in his second term, have a “Mitch McConnell moment.”
Behind the scenes, Harris stands where I stand on Dobbs and Jobs and THAT’s what matters.
Ooh! “Dobbs and jobs” is excellent. I’ll remember that. I hope you don’t mind being quoted!
Dobbs and Jobs !!!
Biden saved America's soul
Steal! Shout and Share.
My favorite articulation is
DEMS MAKE LIFE BETTER
Will, excellent post!! "Shallow" is the best word to describe the Republicans who have no depth of character or integrity. Your comments are so applicable to many people I know, including me. :) When I was teaching, I'd often get so stressed by everything that was expected of me, that I couldn't remember students' names, or what committee meeting I should be attending, or my mind would wander to more peaceful times. I found myself staring out the window more than the children. I was told that I was a very good teacher, and I see former students who thank me for motivating them. ( I knew when it was time to stop teaching, and I'm sure that President Biden will know when it is time to stop being president.) Which is to say, as you said, that people can be very competent and accomplish wonderful things and still get confused. ("Why did I come into this room?") I read somewhere that stress is a great contributor to forgetfulness. If anyone has a right to be stressed it's President Biden.
People who criticize him and overlook Trump's idiiotic blunders are "pancake people"--a lot of surface area but not much depth.- shallow.
I would say "evil" is the best word to describe today's R along with "soulless". They are clearly the party of death, guided only by lust for power, greed, and political theater. They know they have nothing for ordinary people in this country.
I love that term "Pancake People"! SO appropriate!
😊
Pam, I recall from a long ago SNL segment called “sniglets” the cobble-created word for wondering why you walked into a room….they named it “destinasia”. I have been using it ever since because it is SO apt!
"Destinasia"- I Love it!!
It is infuriating that the MSM will spend hours or column inches carping on President Biden's gaffes (which are nothing new) and gaps, yet say nothing about the truly insane thing Trump says on a daily basis. Yesterday he again told his most egregious lie: that he went to World Trade Center on the day. He added a new twist, that it was 7/11 (seven eleven), not 9/11. I might be biased but I do think that getting the date of the most memorable attack on US soil wrong is more concerning than confusing Mexico and Egypt.
I agree!! I can't stand to even see Trump's face, much less hear his whiny voice. He is truly sickening to me, but apparently some people would rather see and hear a lunatic, then see and hear a man with integrity and compassion.
I just read the subtitles and quotes in articles. I can stand listening to him' I will say that he does not have a monotonous voice and expressive facial features. His eyes look so porcine to me. Ironically pigs will eat humans if given them chopped up.
Will, yesterday I had a productive discussion with an in-law who “can’t vote for Trump but is very concerned about Biden because he’s too old”. 15 minutes later she was much much less concerned. One vote at a time, lets win this one vote at a time
We are all tired, but your contributions to the narrative are stellar. Be tired, keep at it. Blessings
I am SO with you, Will…I, too, get a touch of aphasia ( especially when stressed over the many difficult events of life that don’t come anywhere near the stress of events Biden must shepherd the country through), but that has been going on since I was thirty years old, and it has nothing to do with competency (I have been a newspaper editor, EMT, and written nine non- fiction books and more articles than I can shake a stick at over that time .. and I am not even special, just living a life with an occasional touch of tip-of-the-tongue issues all of us get). I wish people understood how normal Biden’s memory actually is, and how sick and twisted Donnie actually is.
“I wish people understood how normal Biden’s memory actually is, and how sick and twisted Donnie actually is.”
PERFECT!!! Thank you!!!
Great analogy.
I am just about Biden's age as is my husband. Sometimes neither one of us can remember a name or something else and then it comes to us when we aren't trying to remember. And I often have to concentrate on what I am doing a little more and yes, I have why am I in this room moments. Then I remember.
To me, the older you get, the more files you have. Files of information, facts, data, pictures, etc., along with so many memories. For many of us, including Joe Biden, it's just a matter of figuring out where you filed the piece of information you're looking for. It pops up, sometimes at 3am, but it's there, all stored. Additionally, you can refresh your memory with Google. And memory issues, to me, are not nearly as important as being vulnerable, laughing at yourself sometimes, being willing to learn new things, telling the truth and having integrity, and practicing kindness and compassion. And Joe Biden embodies those qualities.
Mona, exactly! This is how I’ve long described it to folks….so much “stuff” in my brain—like an overstuffed file cabinet—to sift through to find the data I’m after!!!!
When I have a lapse in memory or fail to find a word, I say my RAM is full. I've said that for the last 30 years!
For those who remember card catalogues: mine are full to bursting and sometimes I have trouble getting to the cards in the back.
Nicely put.
“Sometimes neither one of us can remember a name or something else and then it comes to us when we aren't trying to remember.”
This happens to all of us, regardless of age, as I learned in a sophomore year psychology course in college, 50+ years ago. 😉
Me, too, but I had those things when I was young, too. Like, a KID.
We CAN overdo this ageism thing. He’s up to the job. So is Kamala, but not everyone knows that much about her, except she’s a hard-nosed woman.
I like Kamala a lot. I was very confused as to why, at the beginning of the Biden/Harris administration, the Democrats were attacking her. I did find a reference to NYT Op Ed that said she wasn't a progressive prosecutor. I think these folks don't get how she sees her role in reforming criminal justice. In her book "The Truths We Hold," she states there is a common issue with false equivalency: you could either be tough on crime or soft on crime. She lists three examples, but I'll just give one. She said you can want the police to stop crime in your neighborhood and still be against them using excessive force.
Op Ed By Lara Bazelon saying not Progressive (BTW - Lara has changed her mind about Kamala Harris based on post-California activities
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/17/opinion/kamala-harris-criminal-justice.html?unlocked_article_code=1.Uk0.4wtA.sTINJuVdzoLf&smid=url-share
rebutted by a Letter to the Editor by Lateefah Simon
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/18/opinion/letters/kamala-harris-district-attorney-record.html?unlocked_article_code=1.Uk0.0PlQ.VbFZSGIecqeH&smid=url-share
Some complain about Kamala because she hasn't been more front and center in domestic politics, and Biden has not used her as a true partner. I beg to differ. He has given her intensive training in what one needs to know to be president. He gave her a foreign policy portfolio on immigration. He has given her opportunities to travel the world and meet world leaders and I imagine they have had subsequent conversations about what she learned. She went to the Climate Change conference this year and was in conversation with Arab leaders concerning the current crisis. She has been involved with Ukraine. She is being mentored by a very capable president to take his place. The current state of the world is such that I don't think he feels it is time to step back. I believe, he feels they'll navigate this better together, especially since some political operatives have done everything possible to discredit her in the public eye. Quite frankly, there are still too many Americans unwilling to accept a woman as president.
As long we remember what lever to push. lol
Thank you Will, Another fantastic post!
I nominate "Will, from Cal" to be President Biden's Press Secretary. Or how about "Communications Director". Speech writer, at least!
Will, you are wonderful with words. Even better with ideas.
I would like Will to be in charge of Democratic messaging this election cycle, then we’ll see what’s next for Will on the national scene!
Will, as always, you hit the nail on the head. I want to add - as I have before - let’s not just compare these two men running for president; let’s compare the cabinets, attorneys and advisors with which they have surrounded themselves. Do we really want Stephen Miller, Jared Kushner, Alina Habba or Mike Flynn anywhere near the seat of power? Making domestic or diplomatic decisions that impact our lives? I think not. Judge a man by his associates, not his age.
Will from Cal.....THANK YOU for saying so perfectly what I believe and have always thought about Biden. I believe he will go down in history as one of the best people's presidents since FDR.
He has my vote. He will always have my vote. Hur and the media be damned in their partisan shenanigans.
Ha! ThankYou for your wit making it easier for us to get out there and do the gravely serious work.
Thank you Will & Lin. Per David Hurtz' 2/8 'Talking Points Memo' (TPM) & despite being "optimistic & vigilant" David posted, "If fascism is a disease then the United States is vulnerable"
Good to know this LFAA Community is an able Trauma Center. Carry on all.
Hmmmm, Bryan, LFAA as a vaccine to boost our immunity against the fascism virus????!!!!
Some recall that I came to LFAA as a Life Skill remedy from 9 days of unconsciousness. When you think about ( & my docs did) HCR is much like a Trial Attorney -- scrupulous situational & historical context with citations posted on real-time history all under my neurologist's Motto:
"The neurons that fire together rewire together". : )
Bryan: Great line. What a catchy Substack motto that could be?
Sure, Biden has made verbal mistakes. But he never misidentified in a photo the woman he raped by saying she was his second wife, during a deposition. Or now owes said woman (E. Jean Carroll) $88.3 MILLION and amounting, with interest.
(That should be front and center of every response by allies of Joe Biden.)
And while there's still a government...
I am so glad your post was one of the first I read today. I was afraid I would first be confronted with the words of the trolls. Thank you
I'm so with you. Georgi. Nary a "t" so far. I just hope that folks just plain stop engaging.
With you 100%, Will, and thank you for putting into words what so many of us are feeling. I'd like to share your words if you don't mind.
Ditto!!
There's memory foibles and then there are deteriorating mental abilities. I, too, suffer from the former (when will I ever remember to get the flashing to put on the side of my outdoor stairs to keep the stupid particle board from disintegrating) and have witnessed the latter in people who are in the throes of dementia or Alzheimer's. There are differences, people.
"There are differences, people."
My lord, YES! People refuse to stop conflating these things. They have the discernment of a grade school bully's sidekick, looking for any flaw just so they can yell "Haha, you're rEtArDeD!!!" from across the lunchroom. Elderly-man-who-said-a-word-wrong does not equal dementia sufferer. It is so insulting to anyone who has suffered. A person with actual dementia could not make it through a speech even with a teleprompter, much less negotiate with foreign leaders. If the President was senile, it would be *literally impossible* to cover it up.
Can't wait until we actually get our first female President and polls start asking whether the public is concerned with her fitness because some people think she's a bit shrill on certain days. Don't want her to PMS when she's talking to someone important!
I have just written to the Justice Department saying that Hur should resign since his obvious ageism is a bias that is not fitting in a department that exists to enforce that we are just.
It's too late to dump Hur. My question is: Did AG Garland read that document before it was released? Did he approve that mess? Why didn't he demand that the statement stick to the facts and the decision? It's to be a legal explanation, not an editorial on ageism. Good grief. I try to be charitable to Garland. But I think he blew it again.
Exactly what I was wondering--Including personal comments in such a report is SUPPOSED to be strictly prohibited. Garland should have read it and edited those bits out.
I'm getting rather fed up with Garland's miss-steps. I was willing to give him a lot of room for the investigation, because it's no easy thing to prosecute a former President (it's "un-presidented!) and he had to strike the proper note in so doing...but releasing this partisan hack job of 300+ pages, when Pence was cleared with a brief one page report (that wasn't released, I note).
What a crappy way to thank the guy who gave Garland a job after McConnell ghosted him for the SCOTUS position.
I think it is his scrupulousness and his general bienveillance (it’s one of the descriptions of Biden and I only can think of the French) that got him the job. He has tried to be totally apolitical after Trump’s totally political AG (remember the Muller report?) and it causes all of us to quake, but on the whole, no body’s perfect and he has used his best judgment which I’m betting will turn out ok in the end.
I admit, if Garland had edited that report, the fact that the report had been redacted even to a minor degree would been sure to leak, and it would have been even worse if it had hit the news cycle in that fashion...so yeah.
Garland certainly has a scrupulous, cautious temperament--and truly, he would have been ideally suited to a judicial position. Garland should have been Associate Justice Garland and we would all have better off. I have no doubt that Garland tries to be apolitical but on the other hand, if that is so, why then did he give that special counsel job to someone who had worked in the Trump administration not once, but twice? I'm still on the fence about Garland's reasoning, to be honest.
Garland should have told Hur to rewrite the report with just the facts and not his personal opinion.
THIS! Garland decided to release the report.
Bill, I wrote to Garland because I want him to hear how displeased people in the public are about Hur! He should get the info. and get that the optics are exactly what they are. If enough people call for Hur's removal it will put pressure on them to remove him. I can only speak for myself.
Garland is just as big of an impediment.
Glad you wrote to him. I share your rage. But Hur was hired as a one time thing. He's probably back to defending NFL dudes.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/caileygleeson/2024/02/09/robert-hur-doj-special-counsel-who-criticized-bidens-memory-is-ex-trump-prosecutor-and-nfl-lawyer/?sh=2648d6b04a69
Hur is a Trump appointee. He was kept on because Justice is supposed to be apolitical. Remember all those guys who threatened to quit Justice after Trump wanted to make the environmental lawyer AG? Hur is behaving like a mole in a spy novel!
Garland was stuck. From this article (gifted) https://wapo.st/3Szxhm6
Neal Katyal, a former acting solicitor general under President Barack Obama, helped craft the special counsel regulations in the 1990s, as a young Justice Department lawyer. Katyal said officials at the time expected that most special counsel reports would not be made public, given long-standing Justice Department guidelines to not comment when prosecutors decline to indict someone.
But that’s changed in recent years. In 2019, special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s investigation into possible Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election helped establish a new norm: Reports would be made public, in an effort to demonstrate transparency and that an investigation was thorough and fair.
Katyal, citing his own role in creating the special counsel rules, wrote an op-ed in The Washington Post that year saying Mueller’s report should be released so that the public would “have confidence that justice was done.”
On Friday, Katyal questioned Hur’s decision to include Biden’s alleged mental lapses during hours of interviews, including that he could not remember the year his son Beau died of cancer and struggled to recall the years of his vice presidency (Biden angrily denied those characterizations after the report was released).
“Perhaps there was some justification for special counsel Hur to comment on the president’s age and mental fitness, but I severely doubt it, and the report is not reassuring in this regard,” Katyal said in an email. “It seems gratuitous and wrong.”
To Linda Weide: Please read what I wrote. It’s just above.
Does that mean that Garland cannot come out and publicly say, our department does not approve of the unsolicited remarks about Biden's mental fitness? There was no official memory assessment, and in school psychology one would never make a diagnosis without an assessment. An all day interrogation while someone is handling a crisis is not legitimate memory assessment. https://www.who.int/news/item/29-09-2016-discrimination-and-negative-attitudes-about-ageing-are-bad-for-your-health
His ageism should be commented on and called out by Garland and we the public should be assured that this is not the standard that the Department of Justice upholds.
My question too. And now that Hur has proven he’s a political hack, can Garland not assign him any work and essentially set him out to pasture until he can release him after the election? Garland has been a huge disappointment- taking so long to move against Trump and the insurrection.
Eve, Garland’s horrendous delay put us where we are today. He is responsible for that. He needs to go now and frankly, should be investigated.
This article helped somewhat to understand the circumstances and rationale for publishing the report as written. My favorite comment so far about this was “He couldn’t indict him legally so he indicted him politically”
https://wapo.st/49pwPhz
No. Justice is not supposed to be political as Trump made it. As a former judge, Garland may have been over cautious, but once the January 6th committee got Justice on the ball, it’s been ok. It’s we Americans who are IMPATIENT. And we have courts that are doing their best to remain evenhanded even in the face of putinists. Not easy. It’s the people who MUST NOT VOTE FOR TRUMP or any congress person who voted not to accept the election (3:00 am January 7th). It’s up to us if the courts haven’t nabbed him before November!!!
But Justice is supposed to be apolitical. He needed the January 6th Committee. Just be grateful to Nancy Pelosi!
Bill, initially I thought the same. But then I thought back to Barr and his redacting/mischaracterizing the Mueller report. Perhaps Garland thought to let the public see just what a hatchet job it is (because you KNOW that the right would have found out that Garland edited the report)
Good point, Barbara, tho would Hur be allowed (thinking institutional rules/regs) to release, share or talk (leak?) about to anyone outside the DOJ what was taken out of the report because it was deemed immaterial and prejudicial? Thinking that Garland himself not redacting info, but requiring his employee to re-write a flawed report as any leader/director/teacher/editor would do before “publishing” a work. Would be curious to know Garland’s actions on this front.
Edit: I just read a Politico article link posted down thread & it explained, mostly, some of the questions you/I posed (an interesting read): https://www.politico.com/news/2024/02/09/garland-decision-release-hur-report-00140806#:~:text=Attorney%20General%20Garland%20made%20the,to%20the%20greatest%20extent%20possible
Thanks for the link. It does address some of our concerns and questions. Damned if you do, damned if you don't. I think the Rs will go all hair on fire, and it will turn into another big nothingburger. Cheeto's inability to STFU has already bumped it from the top spot.
Relax Bill, the only people who are going to read that 'document' are folks like us who recognize the familiar smell. The maggats mind(?) is made up. It's better that those words were not suppressed, lest such be construed by the (R) as (D's) hiding stuff.Most maggats (R) can't read anyway.
I used to have the utmost respect for Garland. Now I think he’s a long game trump mole.
Garland knew that if he cut the crap it would likely be leaked. Better to have us all screaming about Hur than about Him.
I read a discussion in which it was said it was an internal memo and that Garland released the report to avoid his moles inside the department from lying about it.
I thought the same thing. It wouldn’t have taken long to see that garbage in the report and have it trashed!
Too many times…and that worries me..a lot!
Regarding the question of whether Biden's brain is turning into mashed potatoes, HCR retails the following talking point:
"If Biden was regularly misremembering obvious pieces of information or making other mistakes that suggested he was not up to the job, it would be in the press."
Ah yes, the press. In the words of former New York Times editor John Swinton:
""There is no such thing, at this date of the world's history, in America, as independent press. You know it and I know it. ... The business of the journalists is to destroy the truth; to lie outright; to pervert; to vilify; to fawn at the feet of mammon, and to sell his country and his race for his daily bread. ... Our talents, our possibilities and our lives are all the property of other men. We are intellectual prostitutes."
https://www.blatantpropaganda.org/propaganda/articles/journalists-are-intellectual-prostitutes-says-John-Swinton-of-the-New-York-Times.html
You don’t realize she meant exactly that, John? That the press would jump on and ride that horse for clicks and jollies? If more incidents of even non-toxic memory glitches - never mind serious ones- were occurring, we would be hearing about them all the time. You jus twist the commentary to fit your narrative, John, and you miss the actual point.
I’ve got to know John. He searches for events and stories to augment his one-sided world.
Yes, so I have seen.
Please don't engage with trolls.
No, you miss the point. The press is lying to cover up Corporate Joe's routine bloopers and moments of confusion.
Well, if THAT was your point, it’s even dopier. You must think the “press” is monolithic on the side of liberals [ye, gads! THAT is a whopper!], because the actual point — that if they had the raw material to roast Joe, they’d DO IT — is in evidence every minute of every day in the anti-liberal halls of some of the press.
{Yeah, I think there are liberal biases AND conservative biases out there in media land … thing is, >I< have evidence that both exist. Your point, John, would only hold water if there were no conservative-bias press outlets. Ho, hahaha ha! That’s a laugh.}
Ho ho back to you, laboring under the delusion that "Corporate Joe" Biden is anything other than a Vampire Liberal.
John,
Perhaps intellectually dihonest to not draw out this debunking story from the same article you quoted? We all now know exactly how honest you are:
“I got email from Jay Salter, one of my readers, who had come across the John Swinton vignette in my "Other Voices" section. He forwarded it to a journalist's discussion area, asking for feedback.
“One journalist there, Jeff McMahon, made this response to Jay:
“‘Yeah, I'll take that bait.
"’The last time I saw that phony quote Swinton was identified as the "chief of staff" of the New York SUN, the date was 1853, and where it now says "I am paid weekly," it then said "I am paid $150 a week." Which is, actually, about how much I made in journalism.
“‘Then some liar realized that newspapers don't have chiefs of staff, at least the editorial departments don't, and if you're going to lie you might as well do it big, so they made him the EDITOR IN CHIEF of the New York TIMES in NINETEEN 53. Unfortunately, the editor of the New York Times in 1953 was Turner Catledge.
"’So, the quote itself betrays a need for journalists because otherwise people who spread such propaganda might go unchecked.”
Tom, somebody in your spinster damage control department really made an ass of himself. Here is John Swinton's wikipedia page:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Swinton_(journalist)
Is there a Google Add-On that allows you to search for scribblings from clearly unbalanced or unhinged opinion writers? You seem to find them so easily as support for your own preposterous opinions.
You dismiss without engaging. I don't suppose you're willng to say what opinion of mine you find to be preposterous.
Substack Inc's California contract violation reported and exhibit made for their counsel. All California contracts have a duty of good faith & fair dealing which includes anything that to destroys the Readers' subscriptions, their contracts with Substack Inc. Reported.
Since he was appointed to handle the particular issue of document handling by Pence and the President, with that now concluded, is he still even an employee of the DOJ?
No Mike Mr. HUR is not a DOJ employee but, HUR does report to Merrick Garland & is the DOJ AG that many have noted including me is ultimately responsible legally for reviewing & the scope of publication under DOJ regulations & the Special Counsel law. Many have observed we have a
'Comey 2".
Meanwhile it is Saturday in Southeast Tennessee so the Troll is up at the 36 minute mark.Generally, I have 'reported' trolling under the express written terms of Substack's 2023 Terms of Use (TOU) & Substack Inc's new "Guidelines" which are express written representations to "Readers' & 'Authors" which can be mediated at JAMS SF in California unless Substack's counsel can figure out an escape path from their chosen Mediation forum & their own choice of California law.
I suspect that the WH concluded that it would be better to have the unredacted report come out now, rather than leaking piecemeal closer to the election. Garland’s mistake was appointing Hur in the first place. Why are the special counsels always republicans?
That's the new rule: Democrats get investigated by Republicans, and Republicans get investigated by........other Republicans. Gee, sounds fair to me /s.
I agree, KR. I thought at the time it was a mistake to appoint Hur as special counsel. Is it that Dems bend over backwards to appear to be playing fair? Or perhaps Garland was thinking Republicans would not accept the special counsel's report if it had been done by a Democrat? I don't know, but it was a bad decision for whatever reason.
Maybe when there is an important matter of potentially partisan or political nature in future it should be investigated by three Special Counsels or Prosecutors, one from each party and one avowed independent, and the report signed off by all or, as with other legal cases in which there is disagreement among the judges, have an opinion (can hardly call this piece of dreck a "report", due to obvious bias) written by each, laying out facts and conclusions.
That sounds about right, Carol.
You've got that right. I hope the first thing Biden does when he starts his second term is to fire Casper Milquetoast. He has been a disaster as AG. While Jack Smith has been a brilliant choice, it should’ve been made much earlier but dithering Milquetoast was too busy avoiding the awful truth of Trump‘s traitorous actions.
Well KR, certainly on the surface, to avoid the appearance of being biased. Let's also face the unfulfilling fact that many of those (R)'s we term "maga-t's" are sincere in their beliefs (regarding #45, etc). And, to accuse them of being unpatriotic is not a nice thing to do..., like who are we? So, "appearance" counts, bigly.
Exactly, Madrussian. But the other side doesn’t even pretend to be interested in impartiality - either the perception or the reality of it.
Thanks, Counselor. Where can I find those "2023 Terms of Use" and the "Guidelines"? I want to be using the right language.
Hi, Bryan - where do I find the TOU and "Guidelines" so that I can join in the condemnation of the way that particular troll expresses himself/itself (still not convinced it's a person rather than a bot)? I genuinely have no problem with alternative points of view, but I find it offensive that this troll cuts and pastes his/its comments several times in whatever thread he/it is responding to, and the ad hominem attacks against the opinions expressed in the Letters and the Comments deeply offensive. It wastes time and bandwidth, and frequently derails the discussion into trivial irrelevancies.
Politico has an informative article out. Always more complicated than it looks.
That said, all that subjective commentary doesn’t belong in a special prosecutors report period.
https://www.politico.com/news/2024/02/09/garland-decision-release-hur-report-00140806#:~:text=Attorney%20General%20Garland%20made%20the,to%20the%20greatest%20extent%20possible.
Thanks for posting this Christy. It answered some of my head-scratching confusion & questions about how this report could be released w/ apparently immaterial comments/opinions.
Maybe less head scratching but, at least for me, no less frustration. The entire DOJ needs a lesson from Ruth Ben-Ghiat, Timothy Snyder (and maybe throw in a few historical psychiatrists like RJ Lifton or Bandy Lee) on how to prevent an autocratic takeover from within. Seems like holding firm to institutional policies in times of chaos should be basic.
Thanks, Linda. Here's the address on the website -- in case others want to do the same: U.S. Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington DC 20530
Thank you....let's all do that.
May I suggest being informed as well as possible to make one’s points reasonable and effective.
https://www.politico.com/news/2024/02/09/garland-decision-release-hur-report-00140806#:~:text=Attorney%20General%20Garland%20made%20the,to%20the%20greatest%20extent%20possible.
Linda, how astute. Bravo
Definitely a brava Linda 🎯
Opps, I got my Latin incorrect. Mrs Tenny frowns
Someone on MSNBC suggested that knowing he has moles in Justice, AG Garland May have preferred the whole report to the leaking of what’s driving everyone mad.
Biden is old and it is an issue in this election. That's a fact. Will I vote for him? You betcha. Would I favor Gavin Newsom or Gretchen Whitmer to be our candidate? Absolutely. [I'll be 84 on 1-20-2025] "Old Joe" has done one helluva job.
And he is a decent human being. Win win--smart, good, fair, experienced statesman, respected on the world stage.
Stellar example or short but succinct.👏
Absolutely. And if he has to step down, I am 100% comfortable with Kamala Harris. I almost laughed when Nikki Haley said that voting for Biden is voting for President Kamala Harris. That is the job of the Vice President, to be ready to step up. You have to be comfortable with both of them, and ready for both of them.
And imagine if Biden’s last action as President, as a human… was elevating a Black woman to the presidency. 74,000,000 MAGA heads would explode at once. ✋🏽👩🏽💼🤯… and more importantly, make that feel entirely normal.
Kamala was my first choice for POTUS when the campaigning began. VP Harris was Calif. Atty Gen when I lived in California [1973 - 2015.]
She was my second after Cory Booker. I'd LOVE to see either Gavin Newsom or Gretchen Whitmer (maybe on the same ticket...) as Democratic nominees.
Nice that we can identify some excellent upcoming choices
Now, that would be a POWER COUPLE - Whitmer and Newsom. Would either one settle for 2nd place?
Good question. I’d love to see it as a real “co-Presidency”.
She sure knew how to respond to the report.
Harris can carry the freight from an intelligence and appearance standpoint. Not so Haley, Warren, Hillary, Lisa M, Bobear, or mtg. A person I've noticed is Jasmine Crocket (TX)..., intelligent, informed, well-spoken (meaning she speaks good English) with a Southern twang. Only thing lacking is time at temperature. Watch her.
I think that I can safely guarantee you and predict that Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett from my home state of Texas is a rising star in the Democratic Party and will be a force with which to be reckoned. The swift-boating of Hillary Clinton, the most qualified person to ever run for the presidency, is an effective tool that the Republicans know how to use. Democrats need to seize upon the process and forget this bunk about "going high when they go low." Sorry, Michelle.
Hur's brazen dirty political attack on Biden is deplorable--whatever happened to the notion of the esteemed elder sage? Lay off the ageism thing and stirring the pot, Hur! We're all taking this personally--I'm 72 and starting a new job next week....
I have my eye on Dan Goldman, D-Rep. NY, for 2028.
👍🏽👍🏽👍🏽👍🏽 I agree--Goldman is sharp and takes no prisoners.
Dan is simply brilliant. Honest. Hard. Soft. Tolerant. Firm. The conservative liberal real honest Democrat.
I love him too. He looked so exhausted on the tube yesterday. 😢 hard to be a warrior for democracy in this Congress
Best wishes on your new job! I started a new career last year too at 69!
What new career pray tell?
I agree with Richard. And I will support Joe Biden, but I do think that the Democratic Party and Joe Biden need a plan B. I am 78, and I know that things can change in a heartbeat. This election and its violent aftermath is going to require focus on the issues and democracy.
And Dems drag their feet when it comes to pushing forward promising candidates for high office while the party occupies the Oval Office. We “elect and forget” when we win the presidency.
Roger, another "78"! I'm a Sept boy.
Plan B is Kamala Harris. The VP.
I said “Plan B”, not fallback. Biden ran as the centrist candidate; Democrats will still need to appeal to RINOs and independents. Just Sayin.
Leo for me.
Well said Richard. I am close to Trumps age. And as my Dad said just before he died: "Your body might hurt, but you never feel 'old' in your head". And that is at the core of our problem.
Newsom and Whitmer's generation should be driving the car. We are pulling a "Victoria" or "Queen Elizabeth". Our generation has been too long in the saddle.
But I am still "Ridin' with Biden" unless he does the LBJ. It is still early. On March 31, 1968 Johnson announced he wouldn't be running for re-election. If Joe read the tea leaves, he would do the same.
And within minutes, a dozen or more highly qualified Democratic candidates for president would emerge and election democracy would move rapidly to establish a new contender.
But Vote Blue no Matter Who - or democracy dies an awful death.
A couple things could happen, Bill, for Biden to retire.
First, least likely (due to time) -- criminal conviction of the fat, orange-make-up caked, diapered insurrectionist-in-chief. But conviction could come before Republican convention, and could force delegates to the shock of seeing that conviction combined with sudden awareness of their incredibly bad record on getting anything done for the public. Disaster looming for all in November.
Second, the nine justices of the Supreme Court could realize they'd all taken oath to defend the Constitution, and that its article 14, section three obliges them unanimously to order insurrectionist-in-chief immediately and permanently off the ballot in all 50 states.
Well Kamala Harris has been an apprentice to one of the best Presidents we’ve been fortunate enough to have these last 4 years, so I am thrilled to stick with Joe and the administration he has built.
I for one am SHOCKED that the R's have yet to say the quiet part about this out loud on this one yet. Not only a woman, but a black woman as president? The wailing, the rending of cloth, the dispairing that will ensue! They will set their own money on fire to prove she's unfit.
What I find thrilling and ironic is that the last group to get the right to vote (Black females) are the ones leading the charge to save our democracy. Judge Chutkan, AG Leticia James, DA Fani Willis, Congresswomen Lee and Crockett, Stacey Abrams, and more.
They tried in 2020.
Being 82, there is old & then there is old! Some age like fine wine, like Pres Biden & others age much younger & become brittle & broken. Do "woke" people age like fine wine & the me me me people just become sour grapes? I am playing pickle ball today.
True, age is in many instances relative. No one comes close to guessing my age. Still, it is an issue for many and the Republicans will swift boat it to high heaven while ignoring their demented criminal candidate.
As someone mentioned how many times those questioned by the J6 committee replied" i dont recall"
In general, I agree, though might pick other standard bearers… I am 77.
Doocy: how bad is your memory?
Biden: my memory is so bad I let you speak.
ZING.....ZING ZING ZING!
Yeah, Hoyt, I liked that zinger, too!
Oh yes! I was jumping up and down with glee on that one!
Hoyt, when I heard Biden’s reply my immediate response was to laugh out loud and think “mic drop!’”.
The display proved he is as 'sharp as a tack' and I have confidence he will show it off more with a wee bit of anger mixed in and a few 'MALARKEYS' too.
Hilarious. ♥️
Ben Hur he ain't.
Stop this chariot, I want to get off...
As good as
A long (and boring) documentary could be made of the many “I don’t recall now” under oath responses of GOP members in recent times of recent events.
Good reply!!!
How about you stop moaning about how unfair it is.
Garland was played like a fool.
Anyone could have seen this coming.
Did you expect them to be nice?
The ire at Garland has always been misdirected. Hur had a credible record - until now.
This is on Hur. Angling for a Trump lifetime appointment or a nomination at best or a Scalia Law School appointment at the wholly Charles Koch owned George Mason Univ.
Hur got a tee time to play golf with a notorious cheater…..he doesn’t know yet that he’ll have to carry his own clubs…….
But, didn’t Garland have to read it before presented? Hur had cart blanche? This is what really disturbs me.
Fair would be nice, but Dems should give up on any republican being either.
A bit of light in the MAGAGOPGRU abyss.
James Lankford upholding coming to consensus through reasoned debate in negotiating the border bill.
Ken Buck consistently
criticizing MAGA.
Susan Collins supporting the aid supplemental. Of course, making a case for the military industrial complex (google Bath Iron works) but still mopping the floor with Mike Lee (always a good thing) and moving the bill forward for debate (a better thing.)
And Ilya Somin - Professor of Law at the Scalia Law School of the wholly Charles Koch George Mason University and the B. Kenneth Simon Chair in Constitutional Studies at the Cato Institute - coming out for keeping Trump off the ballot. (Colorado should've gotten him to argue the case.)
Thank you, a "bit of light" is always welcome, especially from somebody who shines...
We need a lot more of that to erode the Trump phenomenon …but it can be done. They need to care about their country and break the oligarch’s power…They can still champion conservative issues and support conservative agendas, but in the interest of governing, not taking over and subverting our constitution ( a la, the Project 2025).
Even pearl-clutching Susie Collins can see that the chickens are starting to come home to roost. She may sound like she's an ancient but she's the same age as I am and we aren't decrepit yet! Or at all.
Sadly, it seems like EVERY Republican is running scared of the Orange Juggernaut. I keep thinking they could be rid of his oppressive control over them if they were to reject him en masse. In short time, his blather would wear thin and his power would fade.
But it is not the “tool” Trump that Republicans are running from. It is the money people whose behind-the-curtain hands wield that tool. The conservative money guys - call ‘em oligarchs? - have a long-term plan for cementing power, and they are the ones actually calling the shots.
As long as The Tool keeps spouting the conservative agenda, the oligarchs will hold onto him and the people they have in place to enact that agenda will be kept in line.
You would think that if some of these conservatives actually went to Washington to govern in a democratic system, and NOT to enact a long-term “take-over,” they would try to help break this stranglehold that makes our country look so inept and ludicrous on the world stage…
100% on target. He would be easy to ditch but follow the money, and he doesn't have enough. It's a scam game that repubs have signed on to at the price of any human characteristics. A whole pascal of Dorian Grays.
Yes, Jeri. And Dems need to deal with the real power threat .. defeat Trump and UNDO the power that SCOTUS gave to oligarchs. Not EASY, but not complicated, either. Put some real energy behind undoing Citizens United. And resist the Heritage Foundation and Project 2025.
Please recall a bunch of other causalities creating Citizens United.
The Powell in 1971 memo set up the Heritage Foundation, ALEC, and all the rest.
They arranged the offshoring of those millions of American working class jobs. They fixed alliances between unscrupulous U.S. billionaires
and murderous dictators, oligarchs abroad.
But before that -- all through the 1970s -- they killed the humanities in American schools, so elites would not reference what American artists could and did see happening.
All that and more, by Nov. HA Time for another million man (and woman) march.
Without a doubt. Even as a kid, 70+ years ago, i remember American politics had the reputation then of being cutthroat.
I don't remember a time when Dems were cutthroat.. I remember many times when they should have been. Even in the 70's, they didn't take advantage of Nixon's treachery.
There’s a recording of a phone conversation between LBJ and Nixon about NOT revealing Republican treachery for fear of creating a public firestorm just before the 1968 election ( regarding Republicans destroying the Paris Peace talks that would have stopped the fighting in Vietnam before the election - in 1968, six years of war and death and many horrors would have been prevented, but the R’s scuttled it to put Nixon in office — and Johnson says it happened and Nixon admits it did, and NO ONE did anything about it ever ..
We think Nixon’s big crime was Watergate. HAH! Not even close. It was sneaking into the presidency on Dirty Tricks, including prolonging the Vietnam War and the destruction of so many lives here and abroad for Six More Years before cutting and running.
Talk about Democrats NOT holding Republican bad actors to account!
Reagan's anti-Union shenanigans. The NRA. Iran-Contra, the Florida vote that put Dubya over the top, ignoring Al Qaeda before 9/11, invading Iraq, torture, black sites, Trump!
Egad….
Astute reminders, Pat.
Hard as it is to remember those treacherous times, we need to. Chump learned from the masters. Wish LBJ had made a big stink. Of course, I remember 1968. It reminds me of today. Time to make sure we don't have fifty more years of hell.
Ya think? I think Garland knew exactly what he was doing. As HCR pointed out, this makes the Republicans look like the assholes they are. And Faux News has been implicated as well, which is even better.
The 25% of the MAGANAZIs eat this BS up. But what about the 75% that find it abhorrent?
You and I think similarly
Please let it be!
Will any of the maggots, including those at faux news, take the time and trouble first to read and consider calmly all 300-odd pages of the report and then be capable of parsing it and distinguishing factual statements and conclusions from opinions? Even the Grey Lady seems to fail at the attempt, as I count seven articles about the report, a "protective White House", and stepping aside due to age, on the "front page" of today's digital issue. https://www.nytimes.com/
Lynn- Fox and the Republican Congresscritters and Senators will select one or two sentences from the 300 pages and run with each one on consecutive days. We've seen it before we will see it again.
Why such anger at strangers on the internet? I don't get it.
It's not anger, at all.
There is a tinge of despair, a huge amount of concern, a strong desire to provoke action..... but I really can't see where you see "anger", Tinfoil.
My comment is firmly rooted in love.
You might want to work on that.
Work on what? Lin. Sorry, I don't follow.
“How about you stop moaning about how unfair it is.”
I read that as pretty hostile and sarcastic.
But that is exactly what all the dems are doing, Tinfoil.
You cant get angry because I said the emperor was naked.
If everybody here agrees on everything and somebody says something a bit different it doesn't necessarily mean they are angry... even if it makes you angry.
'In real life,' Trump and his insurrection partners lucked out with the meekest of AG's. Chalk that up to Biden, who is also none too happy with having picked Merrick Garland to head the Justice Department.
Hadn't heard that one in the news...
'The report from special counsel Robert Hur ultimately cleared Biden of any charges stemming from his handling of classified documents that were found at Biden’s think tank and his home. But Hur’s explanation for not bringing charges — that Biden would have persuaded the jury that he was a forgetful old man — upended the presidential campaign and infuriated the White House.' (Politico)
'Biden and his closest advisers believe Hur went well beyond his purview and was gratuitous and misleading in his descriptions, according to those two people, who were granted anonymity to speak freely. And they put part of the blame on Garland, who they say should have demanded edits to Hur’s report, including around the descriptions of Biden’s faltering memory.'
'In White House meetings, aides have questioned why Garland felt the need to appoint a special counsel in the first place, though Biden has publicly said he supported the decision.'
'While Biden himself has not weighed in on Garland’s future, most of the president’s senior advisers do not believe that the attorney general would remain in his post for a possible second term, according to the two people.'
“This has been building for a while,” said one of those people. “No one is happy”
'Frustration within the White House at Garland has been growing steadily.'
'Last year, Biden privately denounced how long the probe into his son was taking, telling aides and outside allies that he believed the stress could send Hunter Biden spiraling back into addiction, according to the same two people. And the elder Biden, the people said, told those confidants that Garland should not have eventually empowered a special counsel to look into his son, believing that he again was caving to outside pressure.'
'In recent weeks, President Biden has grumbled to aides and advisers that had Garland moved sooner in his investigation into former President Donald Trump’s election interference, a trial may already be underway or even have concluded, according to two people granted anonymity to discuss private matters. That trial still could take place before the election and much of the delay is owed not to Garland but to deliberate resistance put up by the former president and his team.' (Politico) See link below.
https://www.politico.com/news/2024/02/09/white-house-frustration-with-garland-grows-00140813
Good info Fern. My amateur take on Garland is that he is fair minded, rooted in a careful interpretation of the law - he acts like a judge.
I would have preferred that he act like a prosecutor. Trump could have been arrested and charged in 2021. And he certainly could have been jailed once the scope of the Mar A Lago top secret documents theft became evident.
For clarity, I use this question: "If I had taken thousands of top secret documents from the White House - shown them around, stored them in a bathroom where they could be taken or viewed - if I had done that, what would my fate have been?" I suspect I would be in prison. And if not, I probably couldn't be elected dog catcher.
And if I watched a riot/rebellion/invasion of the Capitol TV - as a public official with authority over thousands of people in uniform and I ignored phone calls pleading with me (with all the power I had) to stop the violence and restore order - and I had done nothing for almost 3 hours...what would my fate be?
AG Garland has been negligent from day one. I wish Kamala Harris had had the job then. The trials could have been completed by now.
I totally agree, Bill. I think Biden was gifting Garland with the DOJ job to make up for what Mitch did to him, stealing from him what would have been the perfect job for someone of his intelligence and temperament. And I've also always thought Kamala Harris would be a terrific DOJ. We're on the same page.
Bill, your comment reflects my exact opinion. We needed prosecutorial fire, not judicial restraint. Period.
Thanks for saying that , Bill. Those are our feelings exactly for over two years.
The report is transparently egregious, an exercise in character assassination. Biden's and the Dems counterplay was well played. They had all their ducks lined up, quack quack MAGA
And the media continue to be good foot soldiers making sure to amplify Hur’s disingenuous political hit job.
Annabel, I have a question: Why didn’t Merrick Garland make Hur follow department policy to not discuss the investigation into someone that they do not plan to charge then or after they leave the presidency? Once again, rules about reporting on a finished or ongoing investigation have been broken (Comey was the first when he disclosed an ongoing investigation into Clinton while remaining quiet about an investigation into Russia’s interference/ties to Trump’s campaign).
If I were Biden’s staff, I’d add him to the daily briefing (daily for the next two weeks, then weekly until the election) with 1 question apiece from 5 reporters answered each time (determined by drawing a number to eliminate questions of bias).
It appears the entire Republican Party has lost any sense of integrity. The entire Party seems to have taken on the ethos and mentality of its leader. A once great Party disgraces itself every day. Sad!
James Carville was on Smerconish this am. James asked how it was that that far right attorney was given the investigation into Biden's docs. And why 14 of 15 special counsels were Republicans. He asked, aren't there any Democrat lawyers in Washington? My question is how the hell was Hur even able to release that hit job. Doesn't that stuff get reviewed? What the hell is Merrick Garland even doing there. https://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2024/02/10/smr-carville-on-dems-after-special-counsel-fallout.cnn
No blow is too low for the Trumpublicans.
To complete Annabel’s unpacking—“—because the DOJ let me get away with it and the taxpayers paid for it.”
Stated so perfectly, I can only add "thank you, Annabel"!
That is what political hacks do.
Thank you, Heather.
Indeed, the report by Special Counsel Robert Hur amounted to a partisan attack on President Biden. Despite his extensive and coherent responses during the investigation, certain media outlets chose to sensationalize Hur's insinuations rather than acknowledge the lack of evidence of wrongdoing.
Also, it's important to note that Robert Hur's role as Special Counsel does not grant him the expertise or authority to make medical assessments about President Biden's health or cognitive abilities. Such evaluations should be left to qualified medical professionals, rather than being used as political tools.
Bottom line? Hur's report was meant to serve as a substitute for a legitimate investigation.
Speak up. Speak out. Vote. Pray.
Thank you for spotlighting Hur's brazen medical assessment without having a medical background. As a mental health therapist with training, I would lose all standing in my profession if I diagnosed someone without having had a therapeutic relationship with that person. Hur issuing his "observation" was not only a dirty political stunt but also criminally unethical....
Act!
Last week I wrote a letter to my local paper here in rural Maine. It's a weekly paper covering local events. But they will post most letters as long as they are civil.
Anyway, since HCR is a Mainer, I put in a plug for this newsletter. By word of mouth HCR's newsletter reaches a huge audience and it is growing.
If only a few people check it out it will be worth the 10 minutes it took to write the letter.
Hi Gary. Saw your letter in the American. Yes, they will print letters as long as they're civil, even if they're chock full of illogical lunacy. It's sort of entertaining in a way. I particularly love when they proclaim their "years in X industry" even though that has nothing to do with their sad arguments. I do hope more people in our area get to read HCR because it's obviously worth it.
-Mark (a fellow Lamoine-r)
Thank You, Gary!
for your service!
Gary, which paper? I'm considering writing to the Kennebec Journal myself about this just nasty piece of mean-spirited dreck.
And I'd like to read yours, so could you provide a link?
Agree, The Hur "OP-ED" is outside the scope of the requirred report: suposition, inference, and what some used to refer to a "railroading". No reason to give this the energy to keep it on page 1 above the fold. Biden's accomplishments speak volumes; Hur speaks journalism: timing of that deposition, edits, relevance of questions and intent are suspect.
Oh my, how confused Mr. Hur seemed to be as he strayed from his task at hand: yes, there was a crime or no, there wasn't a crime; end of the matter. He dithers and strays from his appointed task throughout the report. He should have asked for help and used Pence’s one page report, clearing him of wrongdoing in the same situation, as a template. Tsk, tsk.
Is Mr. Hur going in for some medical testing? Perhaps it’s his diet, his political and media diet, that is interfering with his cognition? Perhaps the media is giving him privacy after such a display of professional inadequacy?
So now we have a robust clain that Biden's brain is NOT turning into mashed potatoes. Why does he routinely need his wife to lead him off the stage.
Trump would seem to be just as bad, unless his mistaking Nikki Pelosi for Nancy Haley (oops, did I get that right) wasn't just a "senior moment."
FDR couldn't walk at all. Did that make him unfit to be predident?
He kicked Hitler's ass.
Ultimately, the Germans were outmanned and outgunned. We can thank Stalin for most of the German bleeding out.
I agree that the Russians stood up to the task - for example, Stalingrad., frankly the entire eastern front. I agree the Russians, and the West, eventually outmanned and outgunned the Nazis. Hitler was a fool going east and west at the same time and thankfully the allies understood they needed each other. Post WWII- a different story entirely.
Indeed, that's an understatement if you take in youtube documentaries on the "Eastern front". Casualties in western Europe were far less than those experienced by the Soviets. Western docs still tend to overemphasize the importance of D Day and beyond, that is in the sense of under reporting what was going on elsewhere. When i was kid and beyond, by and large you'd hardly know the Russians et al were even around.
Thank you Ivan.
Greg Abbott, Texas governor, uses a wheelchair. It’s OK —- he isn’t a Democrat. What he lacks in mobility he makes up for in cruelty. Therefore he is macho enough for his voters.
Perfect response!! ♥️
Please do not feed the troll.
Hahahahaha.
Your bs doesn't work silly man.
But glad you paid $50 to show us how silly you are.
Life is good.
please do not feed the troll.
Still trying to overcome my love of free speech and having to see your drivel. In the future when I see your name I will just skip over.
Please do not feed the troll.
Thank you; that way I won't need to read your inane replies.
Scrolling, scrolling, scrolling past the troll . . . (sung to the tune of "Sailing, sailing").
Esp "Vote" and SS... Pray of course can't hurt.
Prayer is faith in the positive.
Substitute for a legitimate ….catchy phrase!
I'm really at the point with the over-educated, under-intelligent, otherwise-unemployable Ivy League trust fund babies of the DC Press Corpse and their embrace and celebration of their moron stupidity that I will love seeing the surprise on their faces as they stare out from the wrong side of the barbed-wire fence in the FEMA camp Trump's planning on sending them to if he wins. And they'll have no one but themselves to blame for being there, since they decided to put their thumbs on the scale for him.
Welch's statement, “Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?” could be directed at the editorial offices of Faux Snooze, MSNBC (which I find myself watching less and less of as they get more desperate with their clickbait), the Cretin News Network, the New York Times, the Washington Post and all the minor political press in DC.
They've all decided that the algorithm at FarceBook - get people upset and they'll keep coming back - is the one for them. Damned ignoramus fools that they are.
At this point I peruse the NY Times OpEd only; Krugman, Bouie, Blow, Collins, etc. and I do their mini crossword every morning. (avg 60-90 seconds) For straight news the Times has melted down to the "If it bleeds, it leads" school of journalism.
Krugman has a great smackdown of the Hur Report this morning.
I read Krugman's newsletter and columns. He is usually correct about the international and US economy and when he isn't he let's you know he was wrong.
Robert (not Ben) Hur really pissed him off and he let him have it. Great column.
I cancelled my subscription to NYT and WAPO this year.
The only way to hurt these businesses is in the wallet.
I used to think that also, Marj. I too, have cancelled my subscriptions to both NYT & WaPo. It was the only action I could think of that telegraphed my stance that they were seriously undermining democracy. Yet, this leaves them to make money off those that will not hold them accountable through their Letters to the Editor. Will they listen to citizens with no affect to their bottom-line? I don’t think so. Plus, they are owned by very rich people who probably favor the cash-steria a trump presidency will cause. The basic fact is: tump is good for advertiser-based, shareholder-owned media. They will squeeze ever bloody cent they can out of that poison apple. I love the idea of “Push-Back”, but how exactly when you don’t buy-in to them in the first place?
Exactly right. The sugar high of self-righteousness doesn't last long. I keep the subscriptions so I can refute the worst of them.
https://www.rawstory.com/trump-biden-hur/
Nice incendiary that!
Watching the behavior of the reporters at the press conference was just too much. I've seen better behaved packs of hyenas than that lot.
It was like they were trying to form a firing squad using only their voices. From a performance art perspective, admittedly impressive.
Is there seriously no system they can develop to decide which order they get to ask questions in? Maybe a ticket system like the DMV?
In my time at the WH as a stenographer reporting the daily press briefings, this is exactly the way they behaved. It was some years later (maybe when Reagan became president), that they were "forced" to raise their hands and be called upon to ask their question. The big wigs like Helen Thomas (from UPI) always went first, though.
love these little "tidbits" of first -person!
Thanks, Frank. I haven't thought about my time there in years but somebody says something that sparks a memory and I can't help myself but comment. Hope you don't mind.
Keep it coming! Love it!
Wow. You were there with Helen Thomas!
Yes, I was. Remember Sam Donaldson of ABC? He was a hoot!
Yes! Cool!
How freaking cool is that??? What an amazing job you had!
Morning, Ally! Alas, I was too young to realize how amazing it was. Sometimes being "in the room where it happened" and I didn't have a clue; just working to make sure I didn't eff up!
Boy, do I understand that!!
All jaw, no teeth?
This will backfire.
Loved Biden's reply to one MAGA flack that 'yeah my bad memory let you talk.'
And it’s pretty interesting timing of the release of Hur’s “report/political take-down piece”. It comes as the gop implode on the immigration-is-our-issue debacle. The MSM will milk it for all it’s worth, but it’s a cynically, calculated play.
They think it shows them "standing up to the government." Most of them are sad they weren't born yet so they could go to the Five O'Clock Follies at MACV press HQ back in during Vietnam.
Yup. I am honestly not sure if Hur meant to write his hack job from a partisan perspective. It's just that something so open-and-shut wouldn't allow him his moment to be A VERY THOROUGH AND IMPORTANT PERSONAGE, so a couple hundred pages of editorializing was in order, just to make sure everyone knows how thorough and important and unafraid-to-provoke he is.
Everyone just tryna live their dream, amirite?
You'd think prior to distribution, his report would be reviewed by whoever his superior happens to be. Why did that individual permit it to go out in that condition, with all that extra editorializing?
In other words, Hur's boss oughta have some 'splainin to do.
Uh, editing or otherwise interfering with a Special Counsel's report negates the entire purpose of the Special Counsel. The entire point is to respect independence regardless of personal feelings. We didn't like the spin Barr put on the Mueller Report, now did we?
I get that liberals have soured on "they go low, we go high," and for good reason. But trying to out-corrupt the corrupters first just hands them a victory they didn't even have to work for. You can't beat them by becoming them.
Yes, but Hur did NOT sound "independent." He sounds very "owned."
Agreed... the Dems pushback was admiral, even if whatsits name from the NYT on PBS night on politics was mediocrity itself.
Yup.
That boss would be one Attorney General Merrick Garland.
Seems pretty unprofessional. Seems like unprofessional is in, but we can't afford it.
No doubt of that. Gratuitous editorializing.
Wasn’t it awful? All that screaming out !!!
James, I too was appalled at the press corp conduct…the height of incivility…like a school of piranhas scenting blood in the water. I immediately went to the WH website to send Biden a supportive “email” & called them a gaggle of cackling geese & applauded his restraining his “Irish” in responding to them & his perfect response to Doocy (mic drop!) & that I felt his pain when some dobab asked him about misremembering Beau’s death date. Unfortunately a just replaced internet modem kinda messed with me being able to send it, so the WH never rec’d it. Working on a fix to that. This, I think, is a cross Hur will have to bear going forward, just as Comey has.
No decency whatsoever. The try to make virtue of it. McCarty had his rabid following too, but not everyone in the GOP was buying it. After Nixon fell, they seemed to decide to brazen it out no matter what.
Nixon learned what works in American politics from George Wallace, and the Republicans have been usung those methods ever since. The Southern Strategy is effective, unfortunately, and that is an indictment of white American culture.
"decency" is MAGA-irrelevant, where lying and deceit are norm norm norm.
Treachery for a Holy cause.
Just when I thought they had learned their lesson. I finally did catch on but it was painful.
The people in chump’s crosshairs (top of list) are those who caved to his demands (ask Ronna, etc) and others who think they are buying some degree of loyalty. They don’t understand his algorithm…. Comey surely didn’t. And there is a mountain of others. His pardon list is a short one.
associated criminals however...
Of course, they have the immunity that he can only dream of...
TC this is exactly right. The media owners are laughing all the way to the bank while they have their trained circus performers keep backing themselves right into a cage of hungry lions. What do these shortsighted journalists think will happen if they influence America into authoritarianism? Do they want to slaves of State Media and fear for their lives or their families lives if their work is unsatisfactory? Do they think what was done to Charlie Hebdo staff or Jamal Khashoggi can’t happen in America (or by Americans??)?
It is similar to a conversation I had with a Red State Dem voter about her routinely hearing people plan for when they will get to round up all the immigrants, liberals, LGBTQIA+, Black/POC’s, “feminazis”, etc to put them in work camps and gun down as many down of “them” as possible.
I told her they’d end up being sorry about it. She assumed I’d meant they’d feel remorse. I told her that they’d end up regretting it because they’d end up destroying America and their own freedoms. United we stand, but divided we fall.
If they did manage to cage and gun down all those who vote Blue, liberals, Black/POC, supporters of abortion, women who believe in equality & rights for themselves, LGBTQIA+ individuals and their families, friends, & supporters, non-Christians, handicapped & disabled people, and immigrants, etc. - basically, the majority of people in America, they’d set into motion a chain of events most would never recover from.
A divided and damaged America would become anyone’s “meat”. We’d no longer be in a lynchpin position to help keep China & Russia from taking over unwilling countries or a major contributor to other countries economies and military protection. This is why our known enemies (with the aid of our own oligarchs, especially the ones who own or have heavy influence over media companies) have been using mis/disinformation attacks against us for more than a decade. Some of our allies who aren’t too busy battling other countries, would capitalize on our weak state and take advantage.
Basically, anyone can swoop in, take over the parts of America they want, and thank the leaders of the violent losers who destroyed their own country for doing their dirty work for them before executing them all. Those who survive will never be free to vote, own guns, or live without regret.
I say we are already witnessing the fact that it has begun. How else would the major papers survive without already being captured? Media is the vehicle to control the masses. Cable learned that early and quickly. Broadcast and print took a little longer to capture, but the manufactured death of “Fairness-doctrine, for-the-common-good” journalism allowed monied interest to swoop in with the infotainment-model of horse-race, sucker-born-every-minute news. Think of all the billions - if not trillions- of dollars put into play by the media keeping us all in a state of fear and outrage? “How much are the peons willing to pay for comfort/peace-of-mind?” They laugh all the way to the bank. It’s the new gold rush. How do we outsmart that?
Don’t forget that most people don’t read all print news they come access, only headlines, and the media outlet creates those and not the journalists. For all most of us know, the articles most of the main newspapers might not be so bad. It’s the far fewer tv personalities who read off sound-bytes put out by the mainstream media outfits who seem to generate must of the damage along with the biased headlines.
People do have to work. Journalists and media workers are no different. It just sucks that we don’t have any in mainstream media who don’t use bias and negative-emotion stirring tactics to get clicks & ratings. There no one trustworthy. There are non-mainstream independents out there, but it’s not always easy to find good ones and to afford all the different ones to get a balanced view.
I agree Lisa. I am finding in my life, that I am turning to substack writers/podcasters like Heather, Robert Hubbell, Joyce Vance, Robert Reich, Brian Taylor Cohen, Timothy Snyder, and of course Simon Rosenberg’s Hopium for my information. They dissect what I have read, or the headlines dominating the clickbait-sphere, and ground it in context and fact. Maybe we are living through the information evolution of civil society.
There are ample examples over the years of Republicans eating their own. Give them unilateral control of the country, they will rule by fear. The media is setting us up for tyranny, aka a redux of China under Mao, and today Russia under Putin. The only people who will be completely safe are the rich robber baron who have funded this coup.
Excellent!
You are so right Lisa and have put my thoughts into words, well done! My late husband and I lived in countries while we were in the US military. It's not a "pretty" sight.
I wonder how they and their advertisers would respond to a mass boycott. They need a reminder that their readership is not the Trump cult, but rational, fair minded people.
Fools. Erasmus had the right idea?
He certainly did.
You’re right about the press corps, TC. The problem is that they come from too small a pool (namely, people whose families can keep them afloat during years of unpaid internships after college), so even if we got the best of that pool, they would be nowhere near as good as the journalists we’d get if the pool were widened to the whole population (or even half of it) of people who might aspire to be journalists. We’d need well-paid internships to expand the pool, and the management is not about to stand for that.
It's like Roger Corman's operation in Hollywood. We didn't get paid a lot, but we got "enough," and if we worked quickly and well, we got to do another. Out of that came Jack Nicholson, actor; Robert Towne, screenwriter; James Cameron, legend; and many others including yours truly, just to name a few. Ron Howard made his first movie "Gone in Sixty Seconds" for Roger to prove to people he really was a director. Then in the 90s, when the Kool Kidz from the Ivy League found Hollywood and flooded it with interns who worked for free and lived on their trust funds, they put all those people like us who were coming along after out of the business. One time in mid-90s, my boss at Hope Street wanted to use Roger's sound stage, so I went over to check it out. Instead of the clunkers we had down in the parking garage, they were all Beemer 323s and Mercedes 190s and Volvos and such. The place was overrun with "interns." I asked Roger which one was likely the next James Cameron; he said "beats me!"
Chris Hayes' "Twilight of the Elites" is a good study of this phenomenon, how the upper class comes along and gets involved in something and fucks it up.
At the same time you were noticing those expensive cars, TCinLA, the peers of those intern-trust-fund drivers were in Moscow and all the other key cities of the former Soviet empire seeking nomenklatura in whom to invest.
These young Americans, grads of Ivy League and other high finance and M.B.A. programs, had learned zero humanities, acquired zero morality during their years in biz ed. But they found the former officials of the old red star states, and the former secret police in all the universities, and invested in collections of them who would be the new oligarchs robbing public resources of all those lands.
And who was organizing this concoction of capitalism's new avatars? The U.S. Department of State.
Well of course it would be like that. dammitall.
Your original points, TCinLA, now recall to me something else.
When I eventually returned to the U.S. (then, from many years in various countries of eastern Europe), I noticed church parking lots.
They were full of the most expensive, gaudy, tricked-out SUVs and pick-up trucks.
Baptist, evangelical were the worst -- huge investments in the highest-priced vehicles of U.S. sprawl culture. Why bother to show up at all for a dutiful hour or so at some "Christian" outpost? The real investment was time at the shopping mall. Time at the franchise restaurants somewhere out on neon row.
America had changed. Gotten fat.
No wonder MAGA today. So many millions not only lost jobs to the billionaire and dark money offshoring, but had gotten quite lost on their own, too.
Yeah, the proper term is "decadent" whether we like using it or not.
I didn’t know any of that but am not surprised. When you want the best people, you have to select from the biggest possible pool. That’s why universal education through high-school, by law, is such a great contributor to a smoothly operating society. Besides the Hayes book, there was an article in The Atlantic several years ago explaining how the well-off make noise about the “meritocracy” while investing their effort in pulling up ladders to make sure their kids the “ocracy” regardless of merit, leaving the rest scrambling around trying to find a leg up. I was in the generation that Sputnik put through grad school. Wouldn’t have gotten that far without the NDEA program, which greatly expanded the pool of people with access to high-quality science and engineering education.
I no longer watch any news other than an occasional local news show, getting all I need to know from HCR, Joyce Vance, Robert Hubble and a few others here and there. Too many folks with zero integrity!
Reading through this, and seeing the reference to tfg's perfect phone call with Zelensky, it struck me that this blocking of funds for Ukraine is his revenge.
Very astute, Anne-Louise. He doesn’t forget. He’s on the lookout for retribution. What a waste of oxygen.
Aha, Anne-Louise, you may very well be right.
It figures. Explains a lot of what's going on with his appointed stooge, loosely called Speaker.
Exactly my thought for a while now.
Wow, you are so right
Do you think it might be more than that? He might be doing what Putin wants?
Absolutely. Carlson's activities in Moscow remove any doubt. Putin's a spymaster. 16 years as a KGB foreign intelligence officer. He knows all the tricks of the trade.
Thank you as always Heather for your continuing work to provide well-researched LFAA's for our consideration.
I do not think the media is "falling" for this strategy -they actively embrace it and monetize it. If, by the 2nd quarter of the Super Bowl, the score is 40-0, who will watch the halftime show and all of the advertising? Media wants a close and controversial race. They see an incumbent who has continued to govern well, economic policy and legislation that has led to more resilience, greater national security, and addressing climate (although certainly not to the extent we would like to see).
The reality is that a decent Administration is running against a criminal organization. If the media was acting in a capacity to strengthen democracy (in their former, vital role as a Fourth Estate), this election would not be close. They would be dissecting GOP policy such as "trickle down" 'economics', they would be talking about the Trump administration causing the national debt to explode by 25% in just one term, and covering the fact that criminals like Manafort and Stone received pardons -because criminal organizations just pardon themselves. They would be continuing to cover the violence and extremism incited by Trump, his co-conspirators, and his accessories after the fact. They would be talking about the dereliction of duty in the House and Senate -for their failure to convict Trump in the first or second impeachment. They would be talking about the continuing lies, cover-up, and the actual politicization of House Committees led by incompetents like Jim Jordan and James Comer.
Media is not falling for anything. They know precisely what they are doing. They have abdicated all responsibility to democracy and the American system -in pursuit of advertising revenue and profit. Since they continue to broadcast on public airwaves -they should be paying massive licensing fees -as they no longer serve a role in the public interest.
On a connected note, I’m working to bring “Kitchen Table Democracy” back to America and anywhere people aspire toward a meaningful democracy, justice, and equity…
In the United States, in 2024, democracy is on the ballot. Recent research states 75% of people consume their news on social platforms. With so much at stake, do you trust Musk and Zuckerberg -or is it time for an ad-free, subscriber-supported civic social network that doesn't sell or share data with marketers, shadowy political operatives, or billionaires.
Help us finish something great together: https://wefunder.com/civic.works.corporation.
It's getting tougher for the networks and the newspapers to get their word out with fewer than 50% of US households getting cable and newspapers losing readers all the time. The only reason I kept cable is because Spectrum knocked $10 a month off my Internet fee if I kept super basic cable. It includes every station that no one watches and no local stations.
which reminds, need to redo cable to basic or drop it totally, their "special offer" just expired and the one i temporarily replaced it with has 106 channels which are mostly irrelevant to my interests.,,,, several hours later, done!
I unplugged from cable years ago. I was telling a friend last night it was one of my best decisions. Entertainment is not what it used to be.
I went to a local movie theatre last night for the first time in many years, I wanted to see this movie bc it was filmed in my neighborhood. I was bored to tears.
In New York City, Spectrum provides some of the best local coverage available. Since I'm not a big sports fan, I hang in with them. If they ever lose Errol Louis and Inside City Hall, I might give them up, though.
A civic social network, lead me on
Ad-free, subscriber-supported, and no Elon Musk, no Zuckerberg, no Cambridge Analytica!
and sadly, unknown to most. Hope that changes.
I have noticed an increased amount of trolling on this site and am choosing to ignore it.
Yeah me too. That John Schmeeckle guy, seems like a real arsehole.
Watch out. If you say his name 3 times he appears. Like Beetlejuice.
The WAPO and AOL have a "block" option so if someone trolls you don't have to bypass their comments.
I have sent multiple requests to the Substack monitors to offer this option, but so far it has fallen on deaf ears.
Maybe, if enough of us did this..........
Really? If we sensor this guy, we are doing a dis-service to ourselves by only listening to POVs that we all share. One of the supposedly great things about democracy, is that everyone has a voice, so let's not be too hasty in throwing out others with different perspectives, lest we become the hypocrites we despise.
I don't mind listening to different POV's that are represented. It is when the other characteristics of the posts become argumentative, insulting, or repetitive that I tend to report comments. There are three regular posters with whom I disagree on about 98% of what they post. Two of them I will read, and occasionally...well, rarely...agree with, and add to their comments. The third? NEVER.
totally agree. It is disappointing that social media could be such a great place to discuss ideas, and has mostly devolved into attacking the character and/or motivations of posters with differing viewpoints. I rarely look at Twitter anymore unless I want to laugh at the outrage of morons who, virtually anonymously, post ridiculous nonsense as if they know something the rest of us don't. I suppose, it's entertainment.
Report him. Click on dots to the side of the comment.
Done it, over and over and over.
What's it gonna take to get Substack to wake up to this?
I know people that won't log onto Substack because they support far-right haters.
Substack has a lot of negative press in the news these days. I heard HCR report she and her team are aware of Substack's practices and have been talking about alternatives. https://www.theguardian.com/media/2024/jan/03/substack-user-revolt-anti-censorship-stance-neo-nazis
They could also suppress reply streams unless the reader expands them. I’ve asked Substack for this change, but they don’t seem much interested in conveniences for their readers.
Lol
I just laugh at him.
That's the only response he's worth.
I just keep scrolling
👏
They are grossly lonely fools sitting in front of a screen. Makes them feel important, if only to themselves, these trolls. Like little men behind their big guns. Ignore them, for true.
Have you clicked on his profile? It's tRump-worthy
narcissistic! LOL
Yeah, when all this stuff started on FB, I got a kick out of it. But now it's so tragic, all of it.
Report him via the 3 dots to the right of the message. Thanks.
That is not an illusion.
A lot of the trumpist's line of jive has been unraveling lately, so the trolls have been activated to keep the jive alive. You might even notice that they're just a tiny bit more shrill than previously. Desperation will do that.
And again, the things Dr. Heather has to say really gets them upset. By the end of the day, this letter might be another 3-troll post! Pretty good, huh?
Respect
Good luck with that. It is difficult to read when he's like a cockroach everywhere.
Report it.
I have several times and nothing has been done.
Several of us have to report several more times - he's clever enough to sound on the edge of not-a-bot.
That’s what I do!!!
Victoria. Yes. Ignore completely. Join the No Oxygen Brigade
It is really the only thing to do. That, and report it to Substack.
You're so right. Isn't worth the tiny amt of revenue the site gets for them.
Please read Robert Hubbel's sub stack today "going on the offensive". I pasted some of his wording (hope that's Okay Robert) into a letter to the editor in which I held the unfairness of the NYT reporting under his nose again. This time I cancelled my long time subscription and Account. They won't miss my $20 every 4 weeks, but maybe R.H. will be happy to receive another subscriber to his very good sub stack. Would you consider going "on the offensive" too?
As regards the NYT, I was looking for a way to counter their "news" accounts about Biden. "All the News That's Fit to Print" leapt to mind. When I searched it, here's what I found:
"In 1897, Adolph S. Ochs, the owner of The New York Times, created the famous slogan 'All the News That's Fit to Print,' which still appears on the masthead of the newspaper today. He wrote the slogan as a declaration of the newspaper's intention to report the news impartially."
And here's the kicker: Today, February 10, is "All the News That's Fit to Print Day."
"All the News That’s Fit to Print Day is celebrated annually on February 10. The phrase 'all the news that’s fit to print' holds significant prominence in American journalism. It took a permanent place in the upper left corner, or left 'ear,' of the New York Times masthead. This motto has been interpreted as a 'war cry' for honest journalism and admired for its timeless statement of purpose. Interestingly, it first appeared on an illuminated advertising sign above New York’s Madison Square in early October 1896, shortly after Adolph S. Ochs acquired the New York Times. So, on this day, let’s celebrate the pursuit of quality news and the dedication of journalists who strive to bring us the stories that matter!"
Nothing to celebrate here IMO, but I will suggest that the NYT writers look to their "left ear" to remind themselves of their mission to report the news impartially.
Send this to the NYT as an editorial. Excellent, Important, and Amazing, Lynell!
And what better time than on their "special All the News That's Fit to Print Day!"
As an OP-ED
Hey Lynell, how about being a little more "offensive" and cancel our favorite paper!
Of course, Bruce! I wanted to find something to write to them first, before canceling. And this find is just the thing to build on to let them know why.
I have been reading the coverage from the NYT with disgust of late. I think it's time to stop sending funds their way, too.
bye the way, if you do cancel...would you consider writing a letter to the editor
Maybe they will notice if at least two of us withdraw our financial support. What do you think James? 😂
4. I’ve had it.
3
4
My wife dropped her subscription a couple of editors ago. If it wasn't for Krugman, I would drop it too. If only he would stop writing for the NYTimes and switch to Substack.
Maggie Haberman reporting on Trump.
Kenneth Vogel reporting on Leonard Leo.
And seriously, they are only two.
Ugh! And the paper's publishers don't get it.
John's actual first name is Robert, and last name is Hubbel - he's not a telescope. :-)
Thanks TC🙏
Yo' wellllcome. :-)
Thank you! I am on a one woman campaign for others to cancel their subscriptions to WAPO, NYT and cable.
I canceled my NYT subscription, too. I still listen to The Daily but even that is starting to become another megaphone for TFG. It’s disappointing to say the least.
I love Robert Hubbell’s Substack!One of the best ones.
This is only one more example of the depths to which Republicans have sunk. There is no redemption for them. We have to defeat them at the ballot box, every last one of them. All of the members of the House who voted not to certify the 2020 election have to be booted from office, and the Senators who could not find the courage to impeach T**** along with them. Traitors all.
The Republicans are crawling through sharp glass for Trump.
True masochistic ecstasy.
They are doing so because the vast majority of their supporters want them to. This is on the American people, not on Trump or any other politician. Or, to narrow it down a bit, it’s on the roughly 60% of white Americans and almost nobody else who voted for Trump in 2020, never looked back, and are very likely to do so again in 2024. They didn’t win in 2020, but they have a lot more going for them this year. Dobbs might beat them, but that’s about the only hope.
Even if Dems win in 2024, citizen trump probably has a plan to sow chaos in some context at that time.
You can take that to the bank.
Well put, Chris.
Sychophants to narcissists SOP.
I had been a Republican up to 1996, hoping thet would step back from the disgusting Newt Gingrich/Frank Luntz GoPac memo, "Language: A Key Mechanism of Control" and clean their own house again like they did when Nixon went too far. I had been considering leaving for about 2 years and what finally pushed me over was a highly placed fund raiser asking a few of us to join in fighting dirtier than Democrats.
At the time, I thought we were already 6 times dirtier from the numbers of unethical opposition researchers and operatives like Lee Atwater and Roger Stone (the guys I most wanted the party to have anything to do with). I thought the fund raiser was hinting at recruiting us as ALEX type candidates they wanted to groom/manage and get installed anywhere they could be depended upon to follow the instructions of true sponsors (who didn't want their hired help doing much thinking of their own or listening to any of constituents (other than doing some useful personal favors for ones they could persuade to blindly follow them forever, no matter how much they abused others).
I was raised to believe my elected representatives most closely represented everyone in their district, but also every other human impacted by our actions in support of the goals in our Declaration of Independence.
None may be perfect but I've seen too much deliberate isolation and hyper partisanship promoted by my old party (so changed from what it started as) that I will probably remain Independent forever. (though finding it much easier to work with and support most Democrats willing to accept Independent input and participation).
And please, in this POTUS election, make your vote-anti fascist by giving it to Biden. He needs every last one of us to throw the traitors off the stage, once and for all!
Biden has evolved into the most experienced and effective President we can expect to lead all of the people even though he is prevented from being able to persuade enough to support the best of what he might wish to do. Lincoln had the same problem in many ways, with people who would support preserving the union and ending slavery, but passed laws banning them from living in states like Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, and I think Kansas.
Lincoln was late in accepting colonization of Liberia as a possible way of keeping the support of those who would free them but not let them live in the same state, a difficult and odious compromise that at least held together enough to defeat what could have become a government dominated by rich slave holders who could buy up most of the western states if slavery was allowed to expand.
Biden gets us 75% to 95% of desired results possible (and is definitely the one I'll vote for), compared to the alternative that would destroy our country and much of the free world as far as the goals of our Declaration of Independence.
You have been paying attention, wish the repubs I know were as on target.
Remember that Kyrsten Sinema (spelling) who is now independent worked so hard on negotiating the national border security bill along with Rep. Lankford and Dem. Chris Murphy.
The constituency she represents is a difficult one for almost any Democrat to win, I at least appreciate she helps keep the whole Senate out of Republican's hands. It's a bit like the enemy of my enemy may be a critical friend (better than someone like Kari Lake).
Hear, hear! GOP slease indeed, did you watch Steve Kornacki's documentary on the rise (and fall) of Lou Gingrich
Lou Gingrich, not Newt Gingrich? I haven't seen a documentary but am starting with https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6dNyv3F-Sy4
I liked the bit about "Awkward Coalitions" but I was opposed to Newt Gingrich from the first I ever saw of him attacking supposed corruption by Jim Wright then my old party doing 3 to 6 times as much of things like what they accused Wright of what I seem to vaguely remember (book deal trickery that really stood out to me with Dick Armey it seems as in https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2012/12/dick-armey-quit-freedomworks-over-book-deal-really/320824/). Worse were the Glen Beck supposed criticism of Saul Alinsky's book, Rules for "Radicals" and what seemed bulk purchases of the book make it seem a best seller that was passed out as examples of what the opponets were doing (to me with a wink and a nod to actally use similar tactics even more than any implied Democrats did).
I only looked a little bit into such things and may have a faulty memory or understanding of all they were doing but their dirty intentions were very clear to me from within what was left of the party I grew up with.
and supposed sales records of Glen Beck's "The Overton Window"
Accomplices all. That evilstephic congress-chick should be indicted on her threats and assertions that she will do all in her power to throw the 2024 election to the feeble orange one.
lol on the rhetorical there!
Sadly gerrymandered has eliminated most balanced constituencies. "Safe" is the majority now, and why MAGAs will be back after 2024 regardless SANS Trump we surely do trust!
100%!
Robert Hur will return to his lucrative position at Gibson Dunn and then slowly wither on the vine. No other partner will trust him and
established clients will avoid him. And, once DT decides he no longer can carry his water, he will push him under the bus. What a waste of such a talented and potential jurist. I wonder if his immigrant parents are still proud of their son.
Funny, I had that thought, too: “What does his mom think?”
Are you kidding, these poor excuses for humans are teaching their children the dirty tricks and anything but the Ten Commandments.
If Biden is all those things, then he is clearly a f**king genius with superpowers beyond any other human his age, including any republican politician. The man is unstoppable. He brought us back from the brink of hell with one hand tied behind his back. The loser party tried treason, propaganda, a dirty tricks menu that Segretti would have been proud of, and a SC that has regressed to the 1800’s. Even a smidgeon of Joe is many times the man that any of his detractors are. But they are so wrong. He is all there, and not guilty of jackshit. I say to MSM, have you no decency. It’s way past time. Just like with the first traitor MCCarthy…
Just the fact that he outfoxed the MAGA at the State of the Union address showed me he's got the goods.
Awesome Job, by any measure
Jeri, every time I see you here I know we are getting the absolute truth with extra salt and pepper. Please never stop doing you.
Absolute truth can get one in deep poop. It's only as I have lived or concluded from painful experiences. No preacher here, just one who has been woke for what swirls around me.
Preach it, Jeri! 👏
I have seen the end of our President’s press conference which had gone well until he decided to return to the podium and confuse the Mexican and Egyptian leaders. A single drop of blood in the water and the sharks have gone ballistic in a feeding frenzy. Politics is not fair. If our President loses to Trump in the next election, the world ends as we know it. Our globe gets cooked, American freedoms disappear in the drive to revenge, Ukraine goes south and every autocratic leader in the world is given carte blanche to expunge democracy-advocates and anyone else they don’t like. No more blood in the water please. This is truly serious.
He didn't even confuse the two leaders though! If he had done that then of course I would have been concerned and perhaps had some rethinking to do! But it was totally, utterly, incredibly clear through all other context that he was talking about the Egyptian aid and conversations with al-Sisi (who he correctly mentioned by name), and then his brain had the word border coming up and his mouth put the word Mexico in there first, like he's been doing all month. It was a total classic straight-outta-sitcom brain fart at the most inopportune moment, but nothing more. People can't even describe the mistakes correctly! Oy vey!
The blood has been in the water for awhile. More serious than most will admit…
But what Trump excretes seems to have no impact at all.
Very apt choice of word--excretes
In Texas, it's manna
Disgusting.
Thanks Heather been looking for this all evening a late but great one explaining the craziness and lies thanks
America has been fortunate to have Joseph R. Biden as its president, but he made a deeply unfortunate mistake in appointing Merrick Garland as the country's Attorney General. Where might the US be if the AG hadn't waited interminably long to bring justice to Criminal #1, Donald J. Trump, including how acting in a more timely manner could have impacted 2024's presidential election?
Fern, I had initially trusted that Garland’s slow pace was deliberate but now fear that his pace actually is deliberate. I’m not smart enough to critique the inner workings of law enforcement, but it now seems to me that Garland is in fear of being the ultimate enforcer lest he be judged as such
Its confounding to that laws are so complicated that the Supreme Court parses the difference between “office” and “officer”
Meeting out Justice is crucial to having laws. Garland is failing me
Dave, my questions about Merrick Garland's effectiveness began after the Jan. 6th House Committee's investigation ended in December, 2022. There wasn't a DOJ indictment of Trump until, June 2023.
'A Washington Post investigation found that more than a year would pass before prosecutors and FBI agents jointly embarked on a formal probe of actions directed from the White House to try to steal the election. Even then, the FBI stopped short of identifying the former president as a focus of that investigation.'
'A wariness about appearing partisan, institutional caution, and clashes over how much evidence was sufficient to investigate the actions of Trump and those around him all contributed to the slow pace. Garland and the deputy attorney general, Lisa Monaco, charted a cautious course aimed at restoring public trust in the department while some prosecutors below them chafed, feeling top officials were shying away from looking at evidence of potential crimes by Trump and those close to him, The Post found.' (WAPO)
Fern, My Benefit of the Doubt wrt Garland is wearing thin. His efforts to restore the reputation of DOJ is hampering his fundamental duty, to apply Justice in a hierarchy of importance. If it takes decades to prosecute the Mob Boss and we only have a year, The Mob WILL be our boss as Garland Fiddles
I refer you to this incisive analysis of Garland and Co.:
https://sarahkendzior.substack.com/p/servants-of-the-mafia-state
Jeff, her short note seems to go to the bone, and if she is even close to being correct... such a dark web!
Someone like Kamala Harris should have been appointed. A really competent DA or state AG. Garland is a judge of the old school. A deliberate and careful person Admirable but wrong for this job at this time.
I've seen suggestions elsewhere that Biden move Harris to Justice and find a different running mate. Might be a good idea. Elizabeth Warren? I'm not keen on having someone without Washington experience.
Reluctantly, I have to agree with you. Tortoise and hare didn't apply this time.
Harris would have us in a completely diff place right now. Joyce Vance said nearly a year ago Garland may have made a fatal error. Here we are.
"And now the media appears to be falling for this strategy yet again."
They're not falling for it -- they're co-creating it.
I'm baffled by this. The right wing owners of these papers are so desperate to not pay taxes, they're actively undermining our democracy and the intent of the fourth estate to keep the electorate informed rather than putting their thumbs on the scale to tell us what to think. "Money at all costs" -- human dignity, the planet, truth, civility -- has got to stop. We must actively participate in our democracy and vote like never before if we want to live lives of our choosing--not some Christofascist demagogue. Only then can we truly turn this tide, starting with expanding the Supreme Court.
Thank you Stacey. First concise, useful redirect of the mass of verbiage above/earlier than your comment.
I want to scream at Hur and his comments. I am so sick of the fiction that the GOP creates then repeats until it has a life of its own. And the media - apparently too ignorant to call a political hack job what it is.......
Republicans are throwing dirt. Dirt. Dirt. Dirt.
Funny thing is, meanwhile, Americans have a Constitution. And this funny little document specifies some remedies for those who go over the line: section three, article 14.
The nine Supreme Court justices all took oaths to uphold this document. Now they're mostly all pretending otherwise, and feigning discomfort that one state may act all by itself -- as if justices might be inconvenienced at what appears to be lone, willy-nilly action.
One justice spoke otherwise. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson spoke of American democracy -- as if justices might recall their oaths to defend the Constitution, as if the logical possibility remains that they cease being alarmed at what individual states might do, and see the massive damage to the republic of Republican repeated dirt, dirt, dirt, and worse, what a mad insurrectionist can do -- tried to do.
The Supreme Court might act, supremely, and strike the insurrectionist-in-chief from ballots in all 50 states.
I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for that, if I were you - turning blue and dying is a bad look. :-)
Phil, oaths are a fiction of Honor. They mean absolutely nothing in The Book of Legality as defined now by SCOTUS. Consequently, the “Court” has provided itself Carte Blanc to ignore that which they (disingenuously) swore oath to
“Honor”, oh how I wish Bob Dylan had written one more verse to “My Back Pages”
As someone who swore an oath to both the US Constitution and the Oregon Constitution for 35 years, it is obvious to me that an oath means absolutely nothing to these people.
Your oath holds the value of the dollar in 1988 to their 2024 greenback
Ally, when I joined the Army (on Richard Nixon's and Joan Baez's) birthday in 1968 I swore to uphold and defend the Constitution, like everyone else. In my mind, many years later, that oath, and everything that was behind it, and everything that went into it, has never changed. It seems at least as important now as it did then, and maybe even more important. If you ask me, the war I was in was a fool's errand. But that has not changed the way I feel about my dedication to the idea of defending the Constitution. I always struggled with "My country, right or wrong", but I evolved to the point where I can focus solely on the Constitution, and regard it as paramount in regard to all other considerations of duty and honor etc.
Some people out there have been talking about convening a constitutional convention, and you know they want to rewrite the Constitution to suit their agenda(s). Bad idea. Compare Rep Matt Gaetz to James Madison or James Monroe. It would not end well.
For adult students in English (as a second language) I'd often use:
She offered him her honor.
He honored her offer.
And all night long
It was on her and off her.
True. They could apply the constitution and save democracy, but I very much fear they won’t. The only ones who might lean towards a decision to strike T off the ballot will probably be bullied into submission. This is very very sad.
Oh, that would be a relief!